Chatterbox

Refugees and displaced people (DP) currently exist in a parallel job market. The opportunities they can access, if any, are usually limited to low-skilled, low-paid work that harms their future employability. In this world, even a trained doctor can be unemployed.

Chatterbox transforms what would normally be considered an employment barrier for DPs - their foreign language skills and international work experience - into a strength. We train and employ DPs to teach their native language to professionals in their former industries.

By channeling DPs latent talent through innovative applications of existing technology, like video classrooms, and the development of new technology, we have built the best language learning experience for professionals on the market that can easily scale to benefit millions of learners and DPs around the world. 

And our mission is lockstep with our revenue; while students learn, DPs simultaneously earn a good living and improve their employability.

Underemployment remains an unaddressed challenge for the 70million DPs worldwide. Even in advanced economies like the UK (where DPs have higher levels of education than the native-born population), they are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than any other minority group. 

This issue of economic exclusion is surprisingly underserved by NGOs and governments, perhaps because of the complex labour market barriers involved. DPs often lose their professional identities after becoming displaced and face chronic barriers to reclaiming them in their adopted homes:

(a) Their overseas qualifications/experience is disbelieved 

(b) They lack relevant professional networks

(c) They are impacted by chronically lowered confidence and aspirations

The immense waste of human potential and resultant economic inequality facing DPs is unnecessary. Put to proper use, their untapped economic potential could produce billions of dollars of value. The good news is that given the right opportunity, this community can help themselves. The twin impacts of globalisation and connectivity present just this opportunity - elevating the international expertise of DPs to an undeniable asset. Chatterbox harnesses this opportunity and provides DPs a new, highly-accessible stepping stone into the professional world.

We serve people like our founder Mursal's mother, an Afghani civil engineer who became unemployed for over a decade after becoming displaced due to civil war. Her 10-years of industry experience and multilingualism would have been highly in demand somewhere in the world. Today, internet connectivity has made connections like this possible.

We are serving a surprisingly overlooked population encompassing 12-20% of the global population of DPs with higher levels of education, including degrees. These displaced doctors, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and teachers are typically unemployed before working with Chatterbox. This segment is expected to grow as the impacts of climate change are felt in an increasing number of countries, such as Egypt, China, and the US. 

Our platform has been designed around the specific needs of women and rural DPs, who are underserved by existing employment solutions.

Our online work platform connects highly-skilled yet underemployed refugees with demand for their language skills and professional expertise among organisations worldwide - from refugee camps to cities around the world, all through a mobile phone web-app. The services we are building by harnessing this untapped talent - starting with corporate online language learning - produces better outcomes for both our clients and DPs.

Chatterbox trains and employs DPs to teach their native languages to professionals in their former industries; engineers learn Arabic from Syrian engineer and aid workers learn Spanish from Venezuelan medical doctors. Based on the philosophy that 'those who can, teach', the Chatterbox online platform creates a space for DPs to demonstrate and validate their expertise through teaching to rebuild lost professional identities. Whether on our platform or beyond, this experience is designed to help DPs access further employment opportunities through skills validation, enhanced professional networks, and revitalised confidence. 

THE MARKET 

We believe a platform channelling the untapped economic power of DPs could build several billion-dollar businesses and create greater prosperity for all. We’re starting with online language teaching because:

- The industry represents a huge and fast-growing market opportunity

- It circumvents qualification barriers faced by DPs -  someone can deny their overseas qualifications but they cannot deny their native language skills

- DPs have a unique competitive advantage as language tutors: their rich prior professional histories

THE PROCESS

We combine old and new technology to help DPs deliver outstanding learning experiences easily:

1. We take the radical first step of believing in DPs' professional backgrounds.

2. Our unique matching algorithm pairs them with the ideal students based on their professional and educational backgrounds and personal interests, enhancing the impact of the learning partnership for both DPs and language students.

3. DPs are supported by our online curricula to provide high-quality freelance conversation practice and tuition in their native languages. Work is flexible, available anytime and anywhere with only an internet connection and digital device, and a generous pay of up to $25 per hour. It can augment existing work and help to avoid gaps on CVs.

4. Our platform records the hard and soft skills they demonstrate via teaching through the student feedback loop.

5. Over time, this produces a digital skills profile that can be automatically generated to help DPs unlock further work opportunities on the platform and beyond. 

IMPACT

40% of tutors working on the Chatterbox platform during our pilot were able to access other skilled employment opportunities within 12 months. 90% chose to continue teaching flexibly on the platform. Because we are B2B-focussed, DPs gained access to relevant employment opportunities with the companies and professionals they taught. Two moved back into work in their prior professional domains in the legal and education sectors.