RampUp Plutus Devs for Cardano

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Industries around the world are facing the same problem: a shortage of software developers. Demands for skilled developers soars as digital transformation spreads around all types of companies. The last report from Mckinsey stated that 87% of the companies, worldwide, face skill gaps or either will have one in the future. This is nothing new to funded projects in Catalyst. Moreover, our problem is aggravated since the technology required is more complex and not widely adopted.

Alkemy has developed the Job-Ready methodology to help companies fill skilled developer positions. The process consist of three steps:

1. Program design: a tailored accelerated training program is designed to skill up software developers with the knowledge required work with a specific technology
2. Screening: selection process to find the best candidates that have more chances to complete the program and join projects
3. Onboarding: graduated trainees fill open positions achieving a double goal: developers leverage their knowledge, salary and career; and companies move faster with their projects.

How does this process fit in Catalyst?

Cardano, and Catalyst projects in particular, have a huge demand for Plutus developers that are difficult to find because the technology depends on a great functional programming language but not so popular. Cardano community from different front lines provide training courses, both free and paid, helping to grow the developers base. But it is not enough.

We are proposing Alkemy's Job-Ready approach by creating a specific accelerated training program in Plutus that will be designed for junior developers that want to boost their careers and jump into promising blockchain projects in Cardano.

Alkemy has a great experience in designing programs tailored to big corporations that need to fill skilled positions in specific technologies. The LATAM Cardano community counts with many experts in Plutus and Haskel and will help in the development of the program.

Additionally, one of the main values of Alkemy is to find and convince the right candidates to go through the program. This task is really important since training courses have a desertion rate that depends on previous skills of the participants and their future expectation on what they will get after the course. This screening process is what makes the program succeed with as many developers as possible, with the necessary knowledge, and willing to jump into Cardano projects.

Finally, developers that finish the program will be available to be enrolled by Catalyst projects. Alkemy will provide its Job-Ready platform to promote them into the community. The Funded Catalyst project will have priority to reach the candidates.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What’s the budget for?

The budget is for:

• program design and setup
• recruiting
• trainning

• Why LATAM?

LATIN AMERICA has the second strongest growth of new developers in the world behind the Asia Pacific region.

• Why does Alkemy need Catalyst?

Usually, Alkemy works with large companies who pay for a tailored program to cover their needs of skilled workers. Since individual Catalyst projects do not have the size to afford a full program, we are proposing that the Catalyst community grouped together generate that contribution.

• Is the program free for the developers?

Yes. Also some living expenses will be cober to students that pass the middle of the program.

• How long is the program?

4 months

• How many developers will join the program?

We are estimating that 100 candidates will join the program

• How many developers will finish the program?

We are estimating that 37 developers will finish the program successfully and enroll in projects.

• What happens after the program ends?

After the program ends, the first cohort will be ready to be placed into the project. For fund 10 we’ll submit a proposal for the Placement task. 

Additionally, the program will be ready to keep rolling once again without the cost of design and setup. If the program is successful , we will submit a proposal to run the program one more time. And we will evaluate other forms of continuation besides Catalyst funding.

The LATAM Cardano Community joined efforts with Alkemy in order to Ramp Up our developer ecosystem in the region, endorsing and accompanying this project as a key pillar in LATAM.

As part of our will to come into the Catalyst and Cardano ecosystem, we are talking with the proposers from An Open Source Book in Cardano, https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/421486 which will be working in the first Haskell/Plutus book in Spanish, so we will be coordinating efforts with them to complement our program with that unique and key resource.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

In this project we are trying to cope with the question “How do we attract developers from outside of our current community to participate in Catalyst?”

Developers are in high demand and companies around the world are competing to get the best talents. It’s an unfair battle. Big techs like Google, Apple, IBM and Microsoft have huge budgets to convince people to join their roles.

Developers know that they have a great opportunity to improve their career. They not only look for an immediate increase in salary but also a projection into the future in interesting projects.

Our strategy is to merge Catalyst forces to embrace that fight, and we do that by facilitating the resources to attract junior developers into blockchain projects. The recruiting process consists in promoting both the training program but also the great opportunity of an interesting career in Cardano. Catalyst project itself is a great incentive and a way to guarantee long term stability.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

As in all educational programs, the challenge is to make the trainee successfully finish the course. Desertion rates are high especially in challenging topics like Plutus and Haskell, since the temptation to take the easy path of being a generic developer is around the corner. The mitigation plan is focusing on recruiting to select the candidates more suitable to take the challenge. On that stage of the project, we’ll start having the first input from candidates. If the recruiting does not go as expected, we have the option to offer a monetary incentive to be on the program, of course not initially, but for the one that shows commitment.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

The high level timelines has a duration of 7 months as follows:

1. Program design and setup: 2 months
2. Recruiting: 1 month
3. Training: 4 months

TOTAL DURATION: 7 MONTHS

1- Program design and setup

This activity requires hiring an expert that can coordinate and help produce the content of the program. The LATAM community will help to locate the correct candidate for the job. Alkemy has the expertise, tools and methodology to create an adaptive learning program that focuses on leveraging the existence skill of the trainee in order to accelerate learning experience towards the proposer goal. The program is centered in achieving the skills needed to jump directly into a productive job, not just the knowledge

2- Recruiting

This activity also called Screening, will assess candidates abilities and validate if there is a match with the program. This process also involves digging into candidates expectations for at the end of the program such as increase in salary and project interests.

3- Training

Last activity is the actual execution of the program where a Menor is assigned to coach. During the program, students progress is evaluated and actions can be taken to maximize results.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Or budget is based on the following hourly rates:

• Program Manager: $25/hr
• Teach leader: $60/hr
• Mentor: $40/hr

The breakdown per phase is the following:

• Setup phase (2 months)
• Program Manager: 80 hours = $2.000
• Teach leader: 40 hours = $2.400
• Mentor: 80 hours = $3.200
• Recruiting phase (1 month)
• Program Manager: 80 hours = $2.000
• Teach leader: 40 hours = $2.400
• Mentor: 80 hours = $3.200
• Training phase (4 months)
• Program Manager: 320 hours = $8.000
• Teach leader:100 hours = $6.000
• Mentor: 200 hours = $8.000
• Student living expenses: $18.750 ($250 per month for last two months)

TOTAL BUDGET: $55.950

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Alkemy is transforming the way companies hire & onboard tech talent. Founded by Federico Repetto in 2020, Alkemy provides a solution for technology companies to detect the best talent and onboard them with the necessary skills to enter already productive to the technical teams. Tech and VC investments in LATAM are growing faster than in any other region in the world, and that's why Alkemy is focused on connecting and upskilling talent coming from these countries.

Launched in Argentina, Alkemy has rapidly expanded towards Chile, Uruguay, and Colombia. Mexico will be the next stop by the end of this year. Enterprise partners include Mercado Libre, Accenture, BBVA, Chevron, and Telecom, among others.

Alkemy management team:

Federico Repetto (CEO) has a solid business background. Having managed large teams and started a couple of startups in the past, he knows what it takes to win.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/frepetto/

Valentina (COO) is an education specialist, passionate about innovation and learning processes. Her vast experience and background will help Alkemy operationalize the best path towards

https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentina-aragona-988261a9/

Florencia (CTO) has more than 6 years of experience in the tech industry. She's participated as a developer and as a leader in many teams, and will lead our development team to create the best software for Alkemy.

Jean Pierre (CMO) is a business professional; his more than 8 years experience in top corporations, leading world-known brands in LATAM, will help Alkemy sell the product.

The LATAM team coordinating the activities with Alkemy is represented by:

Alex Pestchanker (Funded Proposer and CA in F6, 7 and 8, vCA in F7 and F8, Challenge Team member for F7 Grow Latam, Grow Cardano, Funded Proposer subcircle member, Swarm Veteran)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/apestchanker/

Rodolfo Miranda (Funded Proposer and CA in F6, 7 and 8, vCA in F7 and F8, Challenge Team member for F7 Grow Latam, Grow Cardano and F8 Self Sovereign Identity)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodolfomiranda/

LATAM will also provide the instructor for this phase of the program, among one of the TOP instructors in the community, such as:

• Sebastian Pabon. Plutus Pioneer Program 3rd cohort. Instructor of the Haskell1 - Plutus course at the European Business University of Luxembourg (partner of IOG). Funded proposer in F8 - Plutus for Devs in Spanish: a proposal aim to produce a program in spanish to teach Plutus in LATAM, in joint effort with the European Business University of Luxembourg. Member of the working group Plutus PBL (Project-based Learning) at Gimbalabs.

• Luis Restrepo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-restrepo-55005226/ Nationality: Colombia Relevant Experience: Haskell/Blockchain Developer, Plutus Pioneer, and Stake Pool Operator. 15+ years of experience working in the energy sector, with a focus in the development and implementation of software associated with optimization, and data science. Actively participates in knowledge sharing, and teaching of blockchain and Cardano technologies in Latin American communities.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes, we plan to submit a proposal for the Placement phase and if the program is successful, we may repeat the training for a new cohort. 

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

A Project Management will be assigned throughout the duration of the project. The main responsibility is to coordinate activities and resolve the problems it might arise. She/he will be the main point of contact with the Alkemy management team and the community. Project Management methodology is the standard tracking and change management way within Alkemy organization. Weekly coordinator calls will be scheduled to track progress and resolve issues.

The project success will be measured by:

• number of devs recruited into the program
• % churn during the training
• number of devs concluding the program
• number of devs enrolling in Catalyst projects
• retrospectives from developers and project owners

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Our vision of success is help filling the need of Catalyst project for Plutus developers in an optimized process that creates a real value to for Junior Developers to learn the new technology and move their career to Cardano, and also facilitates that search for Catalyst projects that don't have the resources and time to cover that difficult hiring or training process.

In the long term, the success is that the methodology of promoting junior devs to job-ready plutus developers will run independently of Catalyst funding.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This proposal is not a continuation of previously funded projects.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG subgoals:

17.16 Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.9 Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North-South, South-South, and triangular cooperation

9.a Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological, and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States

#proposertoolsdg