In his first job, Daniel, 38 years old, took a computer course and became a computer maintenance teacher. “But I never got to the area I wanted to be in, which is programming,” he says. About two years ago, he started working as a delivery partner for iFood. One day, he received an invitation via the app to take a course on Tech Power, the company's free educational platform for technology training — and which provides scholarships for delivery people.
“When I received this invitation, I said 'hey, I think it's now, right?'. We see all the time on TV that the technology area is an area that is growing”, reveals Daniel on seventh video in the series “Opening the Bag”, by Much More Than a Request campaign, which you can watch on company channel on YouTube and on digital platforms.
The invitation was to take a training course full stack, which brings together back end It is frontend, the two main areas of technology for those who want to work in software development. “I was very happy to win the scholarship. The cost of the course was very high, I wouldn’t have been able to pay it”, shares Daniel. “So, I said: I'm going to take advantage of studying because I have this freedom to work when I want, this flexibility that I wouldn't have in another job.”
Daniel says that the course was very challenging, but that didn't discourage him, because he was determined to change careers. “I was fulfilling my dream of learning and completing the course I had received”, he says. In December 2021, he finished his training and soon learned about another news: iFood was opening a talent acceleration program, the iLab.
With iFood badge
Of course, Daniel applied, was selected and, in January 2022, was hired as a software engineer by iFood. “It’s a dream come true, right?”, Daniel tells his fellow delivery drivers in the video. “There is a saying that the universe only opens its doors to those who know what they want.”
His tip for those who want to follow the path of education to change careers is to define what you want to be, what you want to do and aim for that goal, even if you can't see the path yet. “How it will be, how it will happen, it doesn’t matter. From today onwards, I want to do something different and I will aim for that from here. And I’m going up.”
Like Daniel, more than 30 thousand delivery partners signed up to take courses at Potência Tech in 2021 — and 96% of them come from underrepresented profiles in technology and 80% are low-income.
The program awarded more than 6,000 scholarships and 500 people were employed after taking the course — 67 of them at iFood itself. And, in 2022, received the Notable CNN Brasil Award. Discover the others here iFood education initiatives for delivery people.
