Selection Senegal
Vitalite
VITALITE will Create, Improve and Match 370+ jobs. Our mission is to make high-quality products and financial services accessible and affordable in Senegal and beyond. We aim to create a sunny future for dynamic and motivated youth by developing a specific training program for onboarding on 8 levels within our organisation, from part-time agents of solar home systems to career paths for young talent growing into leadership roles.
The Problem
Cultural and behavioural barriers in Senegal are difficult to address. Most youth in rural settings will need to assist at home during the rainy season, and a young woman may have to stop working when she gets married. Therefore, if a job cannot provide flexibility, stability, a basic salary and social security – familial pressure and obligations will take precedence.
Furthermore, smaller enterprises can lack the resources to offer paid training programs. This limits the quantity and quality of recruits, with a higher risk of the new trainees being poached by larger corporations with higher salary offers.
The Solution
VITALITE has invested a lot over the past 7 years in creating training programmes to empower young and motivated Senegalese talent. We have learned which basic personal qualities each job requires and how to develop the right skills.
Our project will be offering around 370+ practical experiences that will support our growth, at different levels within our organisation. We will challenge each candidate to develop a Personal Development Plan (PDP) through which they train missing skills (administrative, sales, marketing, technical, after-sales, MS package, digital apps, data analysis etc.), both theoretical and practical. We teach them about the value of an appropriate work ethic within a professional environment. We offer them security and decency through VITALITE’s training programmes with a market-based salary, social security (IPRES, CCS, IPM) with the option of continuing their growth with us or using the experience as a step to improve changes in another company of their choice.
We offer (non)educated rural youth a training program as a solar Agent (A), with 6 to 9 months of intense coaching on the job during which they can build their own solar business that especially women can run alongside the “cultural” obligations they have in their household. Farmers who only work in the rainy season can also benefit from this program. Youth can, thereby, benefit from an additional income while fostering personal and professional development.
Additionality
The support of CFYE will enable us to optimise our recruitment- and onboarding program, offer better basic conditions to trainees right from scratch which again helps us to be able to select better fitting profiles and retain staff after initial training. Until now, we have often been limited by our resources to hire someone from scratch on our payroll. We could only hire someone who was willing to do the training and start an internship in their own time without being paid, especially for the commercial jobs. This limits the quality of our recruits and the rate at which our company can grow. Over time, they become demotivated, resulting in less results, which leads to less revenue, which in turn leads to more demotivation. This creates a huge turnover in recruits, they do not stay long which is an even bigger loss and frustration for both parties.