Pernix Apprenticeship ProgramCarlos Sirias

Carlos Sirias CEO de PernixServices company & idea incubator. 18 people with clients in US & Europe.

We have a problem

Companies are always complaining about the lack of qualified professionals. The professionals are not available but are needed now. The universities are a good place to get competent beginners with high potential, unfortunately the market (due to its needs) have left an important piece on building highly skilled professionals: the process to accumulate experience.

The expectation that beginners are put in front of a machine hoping that they will create something out of nothing is simply an utopy. If we want to train professionals we need to provide the opportunity for them to grow through experiences

A beginner without experience will do more harm than good.

Internships vs Apprenticeship

Experience on most professions comes from the involvement of beginners on projects under a controlled environment where the expectation of them are that they’ll continue their learning process on a supervised manner until they proved worthy of a more autonomous position given their skills. Some examples of this way of acquiring experience are found in how newly doctors or lawyers perform.

Companies must transform their processes to open the space for beginers to continue the learning process, from this reality in 2009 our apprenticeship program was born. We take beginners and through a series of controlled projects (they actually decide what project they want to work on, and it is not an income generated project) & a lot of coaching we prepare them for the enterprise environment.

SOLUTIONIf we check history, successful companies have emerged from the minds of people in their 20’s that had a dream. What could happen if we create an ecosystem inside companies that support those dreams?

After five years on the making we have found something that as a company we like. Our company can invest in young talent with the hopes that they develop into true professionals (which is not dictated by their college degree) and what better way for them to get experience than by working on their entrepreneurial projects... on their own ideas.

Our program focuses on the development of tech ideas (or startups) that are supported by us (we provide mentoring & coaching) this guarantees that the apprentices work on something that they can relate to, something they feel passionate about. We also provide our full time employees 20% of their time so they can focus on tech ideas... we like to see these as a power boost. Of course we know that most products will be dropped but we will still get the experience that our staff and our apprentices are putting into the process. It is an investment.

We base our apprenticeship program in four pillars+ Shadowing (learn from others)+ Self preparation+ Experience with different technologies+ Soft Skills

The four pillars are embedded inside innovation projects (breakable toys) which we are aware that some might never see the light, however we hope that some might and still we got a lot of value added from the experience.

The program guarantees we are getting the best available people for our growing craftsmanship business

The program has become the centerpiece for our growing company where we promote a relaxing open space environment that fosters creativity.