Uber, Piloto 151 grant Codetrotters scholarships to driver partners
Uber has joined the Codetrotters Academy, the first programming school on the island, to award web development platform scholarships to five Puerto Rico drivers.
During the 10-week course, they will learn the skills required to build web pages from scratch, company officials said.
“For us at Uber it is a priority to contribute to the professional development of our driver partners. After the impact of the hurricane on the island, we are seeking opportunities to help contribute to the economic development, promoting the creation of start-up and technology ecosystems in Puerto Rico,” said Julie Robinson, a spokeswoman for Uber in the Caribbean and Central America.
“We’re part of the international technology community and support local business ecosystems is our vision,” she said.
The chosen Uber partners are: a public school teacher; a special education teacher; a project manager at a telecommunications company; a student; and a freelancer in cybersecurity.
Yeslin López, one of the scholarship recipients, said the opportunity to take this course has been a great tool for further development in other areas.
“For some time, I have wanted to take a programming course. I can apply this knowledge at work, in addition to developing other personal technology projects,” said López, who works full time as a project manager in a telecom company and since August provides Uber services during his free time.
Meanwhile, Sofía Stolberg, CEO of Codetrotters said, “For us at Codetrotters, this type of partnership enables us to advance our mission to ensure that everyone in Puerto Rico learn to program. Now more than ever, learning to program is an essential tool that can help more Puerto Ricans stay on the island.”
Technology sector jobs are in greater demand and are better paid than in any other sector, and also can be carried out remotely, she said.
“After Hurricane María, we saw how our industry adapted to changes and many programmers in our community were able to secure opportunities for companies working remotely, which helped them overcome the decline in local demand,” Stolberg said.
I had my Uber details stolen which somebody used for Uber eats to 5 separate addresses in London. I kept getting the receipts through and they totaled around £200. At first Uber tried to blame me also, asking if I had given my details to anybody. After insisting I had never been to that area and have never given my details to anybody they credited my account as did my credit card company to cover me initially. I think I identified the person who was ordering all the food because she had registered a business at one of the addresses and also worked at a nursery where some of the food got delivered. I passed it on to Uber but have no idea if they followed it up. I never save my credit card details with any company now.