Translations

DIGITAL SK Serving Knowledge offers off-site training to thousands of young Brazilians in the tourism trades.

7. Community involvement

Education

Sector Telecommunication, Medias, ITC

Year 2011

Country Brazil

Transmitter

Context

The company was founded as part of an R&D program begun at the UTC Engineering School in Compiègne (France, 1995), which led in 2003 to the creation in Brazil of Digital SK, a company dedicated to offering open-source and integrated e-learning solutions in order to encourage remote knowledge transfer. With over 370 projects implemented in the area of training and education for companies, schools, the public sector and tertiary institutions, Digital SK has made its mark by developing customized solutions that, once finalized, remain the sole property of its clients. With more than 180,000 students connected thanks to a network of servers set up in France, Brazil and the United States, Digital SK conducts medium to large-scale projects that enable clients to transform their knowledge into assets and thereby manage their human capital in innovative ways. Digital SK is seeking to become the leader in the education technology market, by emphasizing quality, client outcomes and open-source software, in serving to promote innovation in the truly critical field of education for Brazilians.

In 2004, the Hospitality Institute, benefiting from the support of Brazil's federal government through the Ministry of Tourism, contacted Digital SK to rollout the project "Tourism and CSR" in an effort to train and accompany young Brazilian students through their eventual recruitment.

Objectives

- The "Tourism and CSR" project is intended to provide access for young Brazilians living on a low income to the job market, via the tourism sector, which has a tremendous need for qualified personnel to keep up with growth needs in Brazil;
- The objective of the e-learning module developed by Digital SK is to motivate program participants to reflect upon and discuss the topics raised during courses, as well as perform searches on the Internet and make use of computer programs.

APPROACH

This project was conducted in partnership with Digital SK, which had developed e-learning training modules so as to reach a greater number of young people across Brazil's diverse tourist zones.
In addition to working on applications in the classroom, 4,000 youngsters, from 11 cities, were able to benefit from this remote teaching solution.
After receiving basic instruction on the concepts of sustainable tourism, classes are divided into 3 topic areas: Food services (for students over 18), Travel and tourism, and the Hotel industry. The project proposes a multifaceted training program that's both operational and practical, with a curriculum including office/machine skills, foreign languages, theater and food safety. Upon completion of the year's coursework, the student is considered qualified for positions like: apprentice chef, waiter/waitress, tour event coordinator, receptionist, housekeeping staff, and delivery service.
The 3 emphases associated with this training project are offered on various support media: WEB-CD, SCORM and PDF. The activities and explanations provided to students rely on the use of multimedia (sound, image, video and text) in order to create more attractive and dynamic courses. Documents may be consulted at any time in designated computer rooms outside of class sessions.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

- Recognition at the national scale in the field of training and tourism: development of several other projects in subsequent years, leading to a 20% increase in turnover derived from this market;
- Project selected by the United Nations Development Program as one of the best practices for development in Brazil, in its publication: "50 Brazilian methods for changing the world: Brazil in motion towards reaching its Millennium objectives".

Benefits

- 4,000 students have benefited from the opportunity to acquire employment skills free of charge and have been able to enter the job market;
- A thriving Brazilian tourism sector thanks to a pool of highly-qualified youth capable of meeting the needs of the market.