Countering the IT skills shortage with IT talent from North Africa
"Remotecoders" has gathered its core team in Egypt and is opening an office in Cairo with the support of local partner QualiDev. The non-profit association provides IT nearshoring by preparing talented refugees and vulnerable youth for remote internships with EPFL support.
"Remotecoders" is the latest initiative of Christian Hirsig, who already launched the non-profit association "Powercoders" in Switzerland with his wife Bettina in 2016 - a coding school for refugees and migrants that helps IT talents in Switzerland to get a solid education in IT programming and thus to enter the IT world and start an independent life. Together with Hussam Allaham, who himself came to Switzerland as a Syrian refugee via a refugee camp in Lebanon, Christian Hirsig now set up the "Remotecoders" during the Corona pandemic. The SDC supports the project in the conviction that this type of development aid is effective on the ground and with young people affected by unemployment in the MENA region.
Egypt was selected as the pilot country. Together with EPFL, Remotecoders prepares the talents remotely for their IT internship. The starting team in Cairo includes two managers, eleven team leaders and 29 interns. From front-end development to Java Enterprise to data engineering, there are specialists for everything in the Remotecoders team. Eleven companies, such as the WWF, the online retailer BRACK.CH and the Swiss digital agency viu, have already been brought together with the team in Egypt for a pilot project.
Swiss companies use the IT services of Remotecoders and kill two birds with one stone: they put the IT skills shortage in Switzerland a creative solution and they give people in North Africa a professional perspective. Marcel Rassinger, CIO of BRACK.CH can confirm this: "For us, Remotecoders is an excellent way to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and support talented people in their career entry into IT." Initiator Christian Hirsig adds: "We are currently moving into 480 m2 of office space in Cairo and are highly motivated to make our project a win-win situation for the Swiss partners involved as well as for our employees here in Egypt. With Powercoders, we have already proven once that people from the most diverse backgrounds can successfully find their way into IT."
Source: Remotecoders
