Mr. Carlos Slim inaugurated the Telcel – Infinitum Digital Village, the largest digital inclusion event in the world, and he announced the creation of the "Train for Work" platform, which offers online courses to learn 20 different trades and professions.
11 April 2014. Mexico City's Zocalo Square
The Telcel – Infinitum Digital Village was inaugurated today in Mexico City's Zocalo Square
Mexico City, 11 April 2014.
Today was the inauguration of the Telcel – Infinitum Digital Village, the largest digital inclusion event in the world, which will be open to the public free of charge from 11 to 27 April with a comprehensive offer of digital education, culture, and entertainment addressed to the general public, regardless of age or level of technological knowhow.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by Mexico City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa; Undersecretary of Communications José Ignacio Peralta Sánchez; Dr. Núria Sanz Gallego, representative of the UN Organization for Education, Science, and Culture in Mexico; Ms. Alejandra Lagunes Soto Ruiz, coordinator of the National Digital Strategy at the Presidency of the Republic; Mr. Carlos Slim Helú, president of the Carlos Slim Foundation; Grupo Carso chairman Carlos Slim Domit, and Mr. Héctor Slim Seade, director general of TELMEX.
After the ribbon had been cut, guests toured the different areas of the Telcel – Infinitum Digital Village.
During his speech at the inauguration of the Telcel – Infinitum Digital Village, Mr. Carlos Slim Helú, president of the Carlos Slim Foundation, announced the launch of the "Train for Work" educational platform, an initiative of the Foundation that will provide free, online job training for various different productive sectors. The aim of this platform is to enable anyone, including those with no prior studies, to develop skills that will allow them to obtain jobs or become self-employed in professions and trades including carpentry, plumbing, ironwork, building, data network technicians, electricians, and computer equipment installation and repair technicians, among others.
Mr. Slim explained that "this launch represents the inauguration of the first stage of this site, offering training in 20 different trades, and new ones will be added each month until it covers professional areas in all productive sectors." With the latest technology and the most advanced training methods, the website (http://capacitate.fundacioncarlosslim.org) offers coaching plans by means of video-recorded micro-classes, including exercises and testing for the development of skills, openly available to anyone without any special requirements, time limits, or schedule restrictions.
Meanwhile, TELMEX Director General Héctor Slim expressed thanks to all those present at the event, and he highlighted the role of the Digital Village as an inclusive, freely accessible, technological and cultural space, which enabled people to develop digital skills, granting them access to all of the initiatives included in TELMEX's Digital Culture and Education Program: Initial Education, TELMEX Digital Library, Academica, TelmexHub, Inttelmex IT, Coursera, and Khan Academy in Spanish, all with the support of the Carlos Slim Foundation.
This kicked off the activities of the Digital Village where for 17 days, regardless of their digital skill level, children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly will have access to the world of computers and the Internet by means of a comprehensive range of activities, which includes more than 40 workshops, challenges, competitions, and conferences offered by 40 world leaders in the field of information technology, in addition to incubation and entrepreneurship projects. Furthermore, computers and tablets will be available to participants free of charge in various different areas of the village: a free connection area, a lecture hall, 20 workshop rooms, and an open square area in which several activities will be conducted.
This major event will also offer broadband Internet access at a connection speed of 100 Gigabits per second through the Infinitum network, which is the fastest connection ever offered at an event of this nature anywhere in the world, and is the equivalent of 1 million people connected online with videogame consoles, or of downloading 75,000 high-resolution photographs from the internet for large-scale printing in just one second. Furthermore, users will also have access to wireless connectivity using WiFi Movil and Telcel's 4GLTE network technology.
Visitors of all ages will be able to take part in workshops such as My first contact with computers; My first email account; Basic robotics; Using the Internet safely; Basic digital animation; Contribute to Wikipedia, the largest reference site in the world; Join the world of social media; Internet security; Build your first Windows app, and Digital entrepreneurs, among many others, and they will also be able to attend master classes offered by world leaders and specialists in telecommunications, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology for education and healthcare, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, futurologist Andrew Hessel, Mobli Director Moshe Hogeg, Walter Bender, member of the MediaLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Hamandoun Touré, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), among many others. All of these activities and content will be offered completely free of charge..
The Telcel Infinitum Digital Village 2014 ratifies the commitment of these two companies to the promotion of digital inclusion, for the development of the Mexican people and of our country.
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