Visit to Escola 42 Lisboa

José Cardoso Botelho accompanies the Secretary of State for Internationalisation on his visit to the school Escola 42 Lisboa

On 21, José Cardoso Botelho, CEO of Vanguard Properties accompanied the Secretary of State for Internationalisation, Dr.  Eurico Brilhante Dias and Dr. Marta Costa (Adjunct) on a visit to the programming school, Escola 42 Lisboa where they were met by Pedro Santa Clara, head of the 1010 Association who manages the school.

The purpose of the visit was to observe the school up and running - it has been operational since 19 October 2020 - and chat with the students who carried out means testing exams in the first of three pools foreseen for this first phase.

This first group comprises 150 candidates aged between 18 and 55 from all social walks of life, with and without further education, some even without having reached the 12th school grade (aged 16).

It was surprising to see a group of engineers in this group (students of engineering), doctors, aviation pilots and anthropologists who had enrolled with the aim of completing their studies with a skill in Artificial Intelligence (AI) or simply because they wanted to take a new direction in their careers.

With the school operating for just two days, it was gratifying to see the candidates working flat out in groups, seeking solutions for the challenges created by the innovative learning platform developed by Escola 42.

Vanguard Properties has immense pride in being one of three Founding Fathers of this philanthropic initiative to which it contributed €1.25 million.

At the present time, through traditional education, Portugal can only train around 2000 programmers per year when market needs point to 50,000.

In this context, Escola 42 is of fundamental importance because with so much growing demand for jobs in digitalisation, it is only through qualified human resources that Portugal will be able to join the leading countries in the digital transition.   

Also, as part of this visit, it should be noted that Association 1010 is already contemplating opening a school in the north of Portugal, but there has been a fly in the ointment. The Association sadly realised that it did not obtain tax-free IPSS private institution of social solidarity status which is vital in order to succeed in raising contributions from patrons.