Mercado Libre's main focus lies in technological development and innovation, which are the driving force of positive change promoted to improve not only the present but also the future. Education accounts for a key tool in that sense. That is why we actively engage to include more and more young people in the world of the knowledge economy, which is one of the areas creating more jobs in the 21st century. 

We know that 30% of systems engineering positions in Argentina remain vacant every year. We also know that 75% of future jobs will require STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) knowledge and abilities. We want to help new generations to be up to this challenge. Therefore, we have been committed to encourage greater involvement of young people in university engineering careers through the program called Entropy, run together with the Regional School of Buenos Aires of Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN BA).  

Through this initiative, we accompany boys and girls from state schools in learning STEM contents in free training and leveling courses that, as it has been said, promote their entry into engineering careers. Our intent is to awaken vocations and help bridge any knowledge gap that may exist among students.

Thus, through a dynamic approach, we encourage students’ cognitive skills at the secondary and pre-university levels who experience barriers to access  hard sciences. In addition, those who successfully complete the program -which lasts one year- enjoy an important benefit: they have the chance to start the course at the UTN without taking an entrance exam.

It is worth mentioning that at the same time, we are encouraging Modelando la Ciencia in an Alliance with UTN: a pedagogical guidance for Entropy’s teachers, through a brush-up course on strategies, methodologies and Math, Physics, and Technology resources.

Nowadays, Entropy is run at state schools in the Federal Capital City, in La Matanza (one of the places recording the highest indexes of socio-economic vulnerability of the Province of Buenos Aires) and in Tres de Febrero. Even so, we intend to keep enlarging its scope to multiply its positive impact. In the end, results speak for themselves:  96% of students who have taken the course think they are better prepared to study an engineering career. Furthermore, thanks to seven editions of this Project, we have succeeded in multiplying the university enrolment to engineering careers.