What If We Gave Microcredit to Tech Talent in Developing Countries?

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Outsourcing things like call center work and data entry to developing countries has been a trend for a long time, but those are mostly low-skill, low-paying jobs.

But what if talent in those countries was harnessed to learn more difficult, highly compensated work? It could change lives and lift people out of poverty, and that’s what a Danish-based operation called CodersTrust is trying to do in Bangladesh.

CodersTrust, which has a partnership with microfinancing organization Grameen Bank, started by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus, provides microloans to students to help them upgrade their coding skills to compete with tech talent around the world.

“People here understand that they can make money abroad in the freelancing market,” says Jan-Cayo Fiebig, co-founder and CFO at CodersTrust.

Much of the work currently available in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where Fiebig is located, is poorly paid garment work or data entry, and wages get slashed to cut-rate levels because of competition and underbidding.

Source: Deseret News (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Technology
Tags
microfinance