iQ4 Corporation, a centralized workforce development platform, which helps students, academia, business and government collaborate to transform and scale the workforce of the future, announced today that it has been selected by the Costa Rican government to help modernize the country’s workforce with a focus on cybersecurity and cloud technology.
iQ4 has been formally approved in the “Registry of International Providers for Professional Qualification Services on the Innovation and Human Capital Program for Competitiveness”, by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications of Costa Rica (MICITT) to collaborate, transform and scale cybersecurity workforce of the future.
“The main reason Costa Rica has been successful in the attraction of foreign direct investment is because of our talent. With this type of initiatives we continue to pursue an ample strategy for job training, retraining and upskilling our labor force so it can thrive in a rapidly changing corporate environment,” said Pilar Madrigal, director Investment Advisory of the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency, a private, non-for-profit and apolitical organization which focuses on the attraction of foreign direct investment into Costa Rica.
“iQ4 programs will enable our community to move forward in the cybersecurity and cloud fields. It will be a ground-breaking education, containing academic and on the job training. To ensure that we reach every student, we are putting special attention towards women and communities with a lower social development index,” said Cristian Hamilton, IBM, Costa Rica Cyber Security Leader.
More than 250 Costa Rican citizens, both students and adults seeking to improve and retrain their skills can benefit from the financing of the MICITT and IDB scholarships (Inter-American Development Bank) that will provide virtual cybersecurity cloud risk courses, as well as Applied Learning projects and Internships on the iQ4 Platform, which has been shown to help students, academia, business and government develop workforce readiness.
It will also help to boost economic development in Costa Rica as the country will continue to attract and employ top talent and prominent brands to the country.
“We are thrilled to partner with MICITT, Costa Rica, and all of the government organizations that understand the critical nature of training the workforce of tomorrow. We are focused on helping to close the skills gap in cyber security and cloud technology for students across the country with a focus on industries such as information technology, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and tourism,” said Frank Cicio, iQ4 founder and CEO. “Today’s world is driven by technology and we are excited to work with Costa Rica and its citizens to help provide them with the knowledge, skills, education, experience, and credentials to advance their careers and create new opportunities.”
iQ4 uses a platform that enables applied learning through strategic collaboration between students, academia and the business world. Costa Rica students will complete the program with industry credentials and up to 350 hours of on-the-job training achieved through coursework that includes a combination of academic instruction and applied learning.
“The advancement of the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution presses the demand for talent specialized in cybersecurity to create the safe and reliable environment required to protect businesses, essential services, and critical infrastructure in countries,” said Luis Antonio Vargas, Cisco, Transformation Leader. “Acquiring Cyber Security skills today will contribute greatly to your career and will allow you to be a fundamental actor in the digital society of the future.”
Courses are offered to a variety of students with technical background, including students in high school, community colleges, colleges, and adult learners in current jobs looking to upskill as well as those looking to reskill into a new career. The programs will have a direct impact on helping students obtain high value-added job positions in cyber security and cloud computing, allowing them national and international employability opportunities, with the aim to close the global skills gap.
The programs will kick off in April 2021.
For more information on iQ4’s cybersecurity and cloud technology programs, please visit www.iq4.com
About iQ4
iQ4 is a workforce and mobility platform, which enables applied learning through the strategic collaboration between students, academia, and the business world. The acquisition of skills during the mentoring program empowers students with pertinent knowledge for future prospects. Companies are able to develop the next-generation workforce in accordance with the demands of the market. iQ4 facilitates the creation of a competent workforce by uniting the independent initiatives of industry and academia.
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