For many children in poor communities across Latin America, the transition from secondary school to work will evidence the great mismatches that exist between the skills they have to offer and those that employers are seeking. For the children of Santa Catarina Polytechnic Preparatory in the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, joing th eworkforce will be buiness as usual.

In collaboration with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP-Mexico), EarthWalk has made access to information and communication technologies a reality by donating more than 400 eBuddy™ laptops and 28 mobile computer labs to provide computer training on word processing, presentation, and database applications.

Lacking in infrastructure, the Polytechnic beneficiated instantly from the mobility, safety, and virtual continuous operation that the EarthWalk labs can offer by resolving deficiencies of space in the fixed lab and turning six other classrooms into labs thus decreasing the student to computer ratio; providing adequate security by properly storing and locking the laptops when not in use; and eliminating the hassles of electricity disruptions by supplying each laptop three days of uninterrupted battery power through the use of the “all day” SideKick batteries.

Since two SmartCart32™ mobile labs were introduced at the Polytechnic, more than 210 students have strengthened their IT skills by receiving over 10,668 hours of instruction and practice in just one semester. Given the success of the pilot in improving the quality of education for the children of this poor community, NCCEP-Mexico has deployed another eight SmartCart32™ mobile wireless computer labs to the states of Chihuahua and Veracruz and an additional eight eXpress 8x8™ labs to the more rural areas of Veracruz.