Support a program to train resilient people in IT professions

After having developed a solidarity coworking space at Lausanne railway station, the Powerhouse Romandie association is launching a new initiative to support people undergoing professional reconstruction. A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to set up practical training courses in the field of information technology.

From training to setting up a social enterprise

This new initiative is aimed at people whose careers have been interrupted for a variety of reasons: from women wishing to return to work after a break of several years, to refugees, to people over the age of 40 who are forced to make a career change.

Selected candidates will follow a basic program to discover careers in the field of information technology. From development to systems administration, they will then be able to specialize under the guidance of professionals, and work on projects to develop their skills.

This initiative aims to be self-sustaining, thanks to the creation of a social enterprise that will operate like a service agency (SSII). Some participants will have the chance to work on corporate mandates in real-life conditions.

A response to major challenges

This project responds to two major challenges: the shortage of specialists in the IT field (according to the association ICT-Formation professionnelle Suisse, Switzerland will be short of 36,000 IT specialists by 2028), and the increase in the number of people out of work as a result of the pandemic(SECO figures from January 2021). This training program will be launched in spring 2021 and will be aimed at people undergoing professional reconstruction.

The project initiators

This socio-professional integration initiative is the brainchild of two people with complementary profiles: Magaly Mathys, a social entrepreneur, teacher trainee and web project manager who has been supporting migrants in their professional integration for several years, and Yannick Burky, a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of the Virtua agency.

Other professionals complete the team, including Bruno Kerouanton, cyber-security expert, and Coline Sauzet, specialist in socio-professional integration.

A supportive ecosystem

The non-profit association Powerhouse Romandie was founded in 2019 by Magaly Mathys and Coline Sauzet. Its mission is to offer a supportive ecosystem to help people rebuild their careers, particularly in information technology. It campaigns and acts for greater diversity in this field and fights against illiteracy.