Micro-Lending and Future IT Professionals
The costs of further education can be prohibitive even in countries where student loans are readily available. Where there is no such system in place, or where the course undertaken falls outside the student loan scheme, such as post graduate degrees or short vocational courses, funding can be hard to come by.
Peer-to-peer microfinancing
Peer-to-peer microfinancing has seen a lot of growth in the past few years, partly due to the global economic downturn and reduced lending from traditional sources. And also in part due to the growth of social networks, where peer-to-peer interaction makes them particularly suitable for microfinancing opportunities. The majority of microfinance institutions (MFIs) however, such as www.kiva.org, have focused on making small business loans to potential entrepreneurs. While this may help a future IT professional after training, particularly if they use an MFI targeted at computer literate entrepreneurs like www.zidisha.org, it won't help them get their initial qualifications.
Vittana and student microfinancing
Enter www.vittana.org, with the first major student microfinancing proposition. Although it was only founded in 2008, by January 2010, Vittana had already arranged over $80,000 worth of loans for students in 16 countries. Huffington Post readers voted it one of the "major game changers in philanthropy" for 2009. This kind of ground level support shows there are investors willing to help pave the way for future professionals as they train their way out of poverty.
Finding microfinancing in your area
The microfinancegateway.org website lists major MFIs and has a search facility to find microfinancing in your area, whether you are interested in getting funding, or investing in students who might become the IT professionals of the future. It also has profiles of the lending organizations, both to help potential investors with due diligence, and to provide feedback for the organizations on where they can improve.
According to Microfinance Gateway, developing IT systems "remains one of the most important tasks facing microfinance institutions." This is partly due to poor communications infrastructures and a lack of equipment, but also to a lack of workers with the skills to support the software. So potential IT professionals looking to fund their training with a microfinanced loan may be able to repay their loans even quicker than most, by working while they train, possibly even for the MFI that arranged the funding.
