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In many fields you expect a professional to have a degree. Who would want to go to a doctor who never attended medical school? In other areas experience alone is still acceptable, at least in the United States. I’ve found that to be the case in computer science. Although a degree and/or certificates are preferred, work experience and solid recommendations from past employment can be enough to get a job in system administration or programming. Such is not the case in Brazil, and therein lies a concern I have with getting a tech training program up and running there.

Without a degree in Brazil, a young person had better have a recognized certificate in the area in which she wants to work (if that’s an option) or else a less desirable field will be necessary. High school graduates are a dime a dozen, and most can expect little better than retail or factory work. That’s fine if that’s one someone wants to do, but if a job in technology or virtually anything else is what a Brazilian is looking for, more education is needed.

Although there are free (as in, students don’t pay tuition), prospective students have to pass on one of two somewhat different national tests and achieve a high enough ranking to get one of the limited “seats.” Failing in this, the only other option is to pay for a private university course, something which is out of the realm of possibility for those in the lower economic classes.

Projects like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) have distributed laptops in schools in Brazil (click here to see a post with an OLPC video about one school in Porto Alegre) and I think this is good, to a point. Although Internet cafes are plentiful in most cities in Brazil now, many children there may not have regular access to a computer or else have one that is Windows based (usually a pirated copy) that isn’t very conducive to learning computer science. The OLPC laptop might spark and interest that will last a lifetime and blossom into a career, but not without training and certification.

Thinking this over, it becomes clear to me that any development project in which I may involve myself in Brazil needs not only promote learning how to program computers and/or administer systems, but also be oriented to either provide recognized certification directly or prepare students for testing and approval. Also, if I were to be involved in this myself, it wouldn’t be enough for me to be a very experienced tech (something I am not, yet). In order to have the respect and perhaps even permission (from a governmental perspective) to engage in this type of work, I’ll need some certifications and perhaps a degree myself.

The field of technology, and specifically that portion working with open source solutions, is a meritocracy. If you are good, prove it. Paperwork isn’t essential to this, and is meaningless if a person has a degree combined with incompetence or just plain disinterest. From an academic standpoint in Brazil, though, the meritocracy is only valid if degrees and certificates are factored into the equation.

I’d be glad if anyone working in the tech field in Brazil would like to discuss this, particularly if you think I am dead wrong about the need for educational formalities. From what I saw and experienced in Brazil and have heard from Brazilians, I’m pretty sure I’m right on this one.