100,000 new programmers by 2025: What Argentina’s Henry is betting on

Contxto – Software developers were sought after even before killjoy Covid-19 rolled in. And in a post-pandemic era, knowing how to program will be needed more than ever. Unfortunately, jobs are high in demand but there aren’t enough professionals to answer the call.

To resolve this issue, Henry recently raised funds and it recently participated Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 Batch. And now the funds it obtained through the accelerator, coupled with investments pitched by Tim Draper and Mike Santos total to US$300,000 for the startup.

And Henry has a clear goal as to what’s next: to prepare 100,000 developers within the next five years.

“We have an ambitious goal,” says Martin Borchardt, Founder and CEO at Henry. “We want to become the biggest development hub in all of Latam, by enhancing people’s digital skills regardless of their socioeconomic status.”

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Henry and the programmer shortage

Recent data gathered by LinkedIn shows that when it comes to remote jobs, professionals in software are among those experiencing the fastest growth in demand.

But not everyone in Latam is able to attend a higher learning institution to acquire those badass coding skills. This is leading to a widening gap between the job market’s needs and what people can offer. 

“Nowadays there are many digital academies across Latin America and that’s great news,” the startup told Contxto. “But at Henry, we believe that there’s more room to improve graduate’s technical skills by nurturing their talent. We seek to resolve one part of the problem: helping people who couldn’t pay for the necessary education to take on a new career path “

“Education is the best way to solve inequality, but only if it’s high quality and within everyone’s reach,” concludes Borchardt.

Amen to that.

Henry programmers: Learn now, pay later

Henry screens through applicants. Those that are chosen to participate will partake in its bootcamp program to become full-stack developers.

The startup will only charge alumni once they’ve graduated and landed a job (preferably in software development) that complies with the startup’s basic income bracket. 

In other words, the startup operates with its students under a shared income agreement.

Upon finishing the full-time four-month program, Henry’s team also helps graduates land a job. From advising on how to perfect their LinkedIn and Github profiles, to tweaking their CVs, the startup wants to help its students (and itself) excel.

Related articles: Tech and startups from Argentina!

-ML