Let IT Help trains and employs Filipino graduates from poor communities and connects them with internal and external career advancement opportunities in the ICT field. LetIThelp.org provides low cost web development services to clients, while training and employing fresh IT graduates with initially incomplete skill sets.
1.The New Idea
Due to the growing number of emerging companies in developing countries that take on outsourced projects, it is increasingly important to remain competitive. Let IT Help employs a unique business model that focuses on hiring recent graduates that do not yet commend a very high salary and then filling their knowledge gaps by training them directly, which allows them to deliver high quality service at a low cost to clients. This new methodology not only makes sense from a financial perspective, but it clearly makes sense from a social perspective as well. By employing these early stage IT professionals, Let IT Help is able to provide a financial and physical transformation to Philippine’s poor youth in a holistic way.
2.The Problem
According to the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board, over 34% of Filipinos live below the poverty line, and unemployment and underemployment increase this figure by 3% each year. While the local IT industry and demand for outsourced labor from abroad is growing, the poor quality of education in local colleges and the lack of industry-oriented mentoring leave many recent graduates with degrees in IT studies unprepared for careers. The IT industry also faces difficulties growing to full capacity as companies continue to hire older, experienced workers rather than providing extra training to close the youths’ learning gaps. This creates needless distortions as a few workers are offered high salaries, which are passed along in higher costs to clients. This pattern threatens the sustainability and attractiveness of the Philippines as an outsourcing center.
3.The Strategy
Let IT Help hires fresh IT graduates that come from poor disadvantaged families and then provides additional IT training in order to equip them with the necessary skills. By employing recent graduates that do not yet demand very high salaries, Let IT Help is able to keep their operational expenses low which translates into low-cost services to clients. This strategy not only allows Let IT Help to maintain a competitive edge, but it also contributes to their social mission of helping disadvantaged youth in the Philippines.
By hiring disadvantaged youth in their local community of Mindanao, Let IT Help is able to spare the graduates the relocation and travel costs they face when migrating to the urban cities to find employment. Let IT Help has a strong focus on family support and community building that adds social value to their services which also makes them a more attractive outsourcing choice.
Let IT Help spreads awareness about their activities through free seminars, community-training sessions and by participating in career guidance orientations for students. Their marketing strategy allows them to reach clients, investors, and donors through their utilization of web, radio, print media, job fairs and search services.
4.The Person
STEPHANIE ROSALIND P. CARAGOS is a graduate of Information Management of Xavier University, now Ateneo de Cagayan University. Her stellar performance as an Information Management student and the core value of her Jesuit education help define the person that she is today.
Standing true to being a woman for others and attuning her senses to the employment crisis that the nation was and is facing, she vowed to fulfill a dream of building her own company that will employ a greater number of young professionals like her.
8 years hence, and now Stephanie is the President and Chief Executive Officer of her commercial IT company that is based in her hometown of Cagayan de Oro City. This company is an IT services provider for small and medium enterprises and covers not only Cagayan de Oro City but throughout the entire country.
Through the years, she had gained recognition as a formidable IT consultant for companies, organizations and speaker for several conventions and conferences all over the country. Throughout the years, she has been working as a trainer, a friend and a manager who instills the values of dedication towards work, commitment and being of service to others. After 8 years of being in the industry, she has also seen that through IT, more jobs can be created and that there is a huge percentage these IT graduates that are unemployed or underemployed due to the lack of skills after college. Thus, the initiative of starting Let IT Help, the social division of the her current company sprung, in order to train further and arm with the right skills the youth who would want to excel in the field of IT. Through Let IT Help, she envisions that there will be a source of decent profession and sustainable income for the majority of these youth who aspires to become an inspiration for others as well.
