“Wired” Program

The growing importance of Information Technology worldwide contrasts with the still high digital exclusion figures in the country. According to the 2010 TIC Homes Survey, 46% of the Brazilian population has never used a computer and 52% have never navigated the Internet.

In 2005, in an attempt to improve the qualification of the workers at its construction sites and in surrounding communities, Odebrecht created a digital inclusion project: “Wired.”

In the beginning, the program was designed for the Members of the PRA-1 project in São Roque do Paraguaçu (BA), undertaken by Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial, and benefited 1,900 people in less than one year. In 2008, there was a new experiment at the São Salvador Hydroelectric Power Plant in Tocantins that reached 1,200 Members.

The success of these first attempts prompted Odebrecht to reformulate “Wired” in 2009 when it established a Cooperation Agreement with the Odebrecht Foundation, Microsoft, Dell and Oi. The project sophisticated its methodology, infrastructure and scope, and was also extended to the educational programs supported by the Odebrecht Foundation in Bahia’s Southern Lowlands, where it is still underway until today.

General Structure and Objectives

In the current model, classrooms and community centers anywhere can be converted into “Wired” IT labs, using the training equipment and content donated by partner companies.

The course, which lasts 32 hours, teaches everything from basic computer skills (Basic Module) to the mastery of Office system programs and online services, such as e-mail and electronic government websites (Technical Module). In certain sites where the project is undertaken, the apprentices study using the e-learning method, supported by volunteer monitors specially trained for this purpose.

By exploring the individual’s desired to develop his or her personal and professional skills through digital inclusion, the project also hopes to accomplish the following:

• Connect people with new job and distance education opportunities;
• Help communities and small businesses offer new services and generate income – including to guarantee the sustainability of these IT centers.

Scope

“Wired” is present in seven Brazilian states and also abroad, having trained thousands of Odebrecht workers and members of the communities located near its construction sites.

The first experience outside Brazil happened in Mozambique in 2010 in the area of influence of Vale’s Moatize Coal Project. Under the leadership of Odebrecht International and in partnership with Microsoft Brasil, Hewlett-Packard and the airline company Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP), three tele-centers were set up with connected printers and computers.

In Liberia, the program fits within the sphere of the Iron Ore Project and has been taking place since 2011 in the city of Buchanan. Also called “Wired,” it is the result of a partnership between Odebrecht International with the city’s university-level teaching institution, the Grand Bassa Community College.

At the start of 2011, the initiative arrived to Portugal and Venezuela. In the Portuguese case, the IT training was directed at Members of the Baixo Tejo Concession and the Belverde Viaduct projects, both in the Metropolitan Region of Lisbon. Eliminate the paragraph. The text about Venezuela can continue in the paragraph above. In Venezuela, the first Latin American country to receive the project (called Intégrate a La Red), the digital literacy began with the children who live near the Tocoma Hydroelectric Power Plant, built on the Caroni River. The classes are held on the “Compubus,” a bus transformed into a mobile IT lab by the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Puerto Ordaz, a partner on the initiative.