Virtualahan

1 in 7 person in the world has a disability. One of them is Charina, our deaf scholar who used to be a cleaner and  dishwasher because no company would hire her because of her disability despite having a college education

She learned that Virtulahan designed a cost-effective and transferable social technology using an impact formula that integrates well-being sessions and community-building with digital job skills training. She went through 5 weeks of intensive skills training, 2 weeks of apprenticeship, and 3 weeks of dedicated job coaching. She also received life coaching through our well-being sessions and additional training on leadership and advocacy.

She is now working as a Social Media Manager for a nonprofit based in Germany and earns substantially more than before. To her words, “Virtualahan transformed me from being recipient of help to now giver of opportunities. Now I'm helping other deaf girls achieve their dreams too."

According to the ILO, People with Disabilities (PWDs) make up an estimated one billion (15% GP). About 80% are of working age. The right of people with disabilities to decent work, however, is frequently denied. We experience higher rates of unemployment and economic inactivity and are at greater risk of insufficient social protection that is key to reducing extreme poverty. We are already left behind, but even more, as automation will take over.

This is the same reality shared by indigenous people, solo parents, Youth NEET, recovering drug addicts, and former sex workers. Although we came from very diverse backgrounds, we share common struggle of of finding long-term and meaningful employment because of our life conditions. 

In the Philippines, the two main root causes of the problem is the lack of skills and mindset to qualify for employment and the lack of confidence of businesses and institutions to hire, integrate, and retain talents with their backgrounds.

Majority of our team members are from the population that we are serving. Our founder was rejected from jobs despite his qualifications and credentials because of his medical condition. We have the lived experience and share similar realities to the people that we are working to directly and meaningfully improve.

This makes the co-creation process of our solution seamless and highly engaging. We continually involved our community members in our decision making and in developing features to the impact formula that we developed together.

We also always make time to do home visits, deep community immersion inside the prison or rehabilitation centers, focused group discussion, and community meet-up where our community members and their families get to participate in problem solving and solution building inside Virtualahan.

Virtualahan is future-proofing our scholars with high tech skills that allow them to work high paying jobs from the comfort of their home using our impact formula that combines:

1. Ten-weeks digital skills training like in automation, data processing, digital marketing and other skills of the future. We are using an adult blended learning approach and it is fully accessible to all type of disability.

2. Our graduates then undergoes two-weeks of on-the-job training and three weeks of dedicated job coaching. They can then chose accelerate through our two months of added employment support or one year of business mentorship for the entrepreneurship track;

3. We have also integrated life-coaching in our curriculum with the help of our in-house psychologist focussed on on well-being, community-based therapy, emotional intelligence, and restoring human dignity, and;

4. Community-building programs through awareness drive, events, and other advocacy campaigns.

This model removes many barriers for employment, like transportation & the need for special assistance in which employers shy away from. It also increases their sense of independence & self-worth.

We also have our own learning management system that helps us monitor and improve the learning outcome of our scholars. We also developed our own job matching platform to facilitate efficient job matching between our graduates and our employment partners.

We now have 350+ graduates with 98% completion rate and 78% employment rate. Our graduates also reported 42% increase in income.

Our alumni rated their confidence level to have increased by 78%, and their overall quality of life has increased by 47% after joining our community. There is also an increase in their participation in decision making in the family and a strong sense of belonging to the community. 99% of our alumni claimed that Virtualahan made a positive contribution to their lives. 

We now have presence in 50+ provinces nationwide, won 17 major awards received, and have reached 50+ Million people across different media.

Virtualahan is designing a cost-effective and transferable social technology that allows socially excluded populations to access work in the global digital economy. The method is tailored to suit those who struggle with social exclusion due to the social stigma attached to their conditions such as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), recovering drug addicts, and former sex workers. We are opening up the means for them to first acquire in-demand job skills to boost their economic capacity while underwriting a community culture that fosters self-care, empathy, and personal advocacies—leading many to rethink and redefine their conditions and take ownership of their future and personal narratives.

Through virtual training and coaching, Virtualahan impart digital literacy and life coaching to any Filipino with access to broadband and a computer. This method proves to be a cost-effective and accessible way for those that cannot physically work in a traditional office set up, to perform high-value work from their homes. We also provide well-being and community building sessions to aid our scholars in overcoming the debilitating effects of social and economic exclusion, allowing them to transform their negative experiences into powerful testimonials and means to connect with others.

Virtualahan is also a 100% virtual company with no physical office making its operations lean and highly scalable. It uses the equalizing power of technology to make it possible for deaf and blind for example to learn at the same time which is not possible in a classroom type of training.

A Ph.D. candidate from university of Manchester conducted a study on Virtualahan graduates and published a paper about it. 

Exploring an impact sourcing initiative for a community of people with disabilities: A capability analysis

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/exploring-an-impact-sourcing-initiative-for-a-community-of-people-with-disabilities(de426271-3d5a-4e84-b2bd-9c3e7defe813).html

We have the capacity to train at least 1,000 people in a year.

We have five people in our leadership taking care of training & employment, legal & finance, HR & Community, Technology, & Fundraising & strategy. We have 7 business leaders in our informal advisory board from across industries. We have 18 full-time employees, 12 contractors, & 6 consultants including our in-house psychologist & job coaches.

Our team has 30+ combined experience in training and coaching, 25+ years in outsourcing, 20+ in community building, and 18+ business and entrepreneurship. 

1. Training. Our scholars don't pay anything upfront with a condition that they pay off their scholarship loan within ten months of getting a job using our pay it forward model. Our scholarship sponsors initially pay the amount, and then we keep the funds rolling making their dollars having infinite value.

2. Impact Sourcing Services. We provide a wide selection of virtual assistant services to impact-driven organizations all over the world. 

3. We are now testing our E-learning subscription model and also developing a tech platform for effective job matching. We are also launching our HR Solutions to help companies become more diverse & inclusive in the workplace

ServiceNow can help us improve our learning management system to make it widely available to other demographics and geographic locations at will.

ServiceNow can also help us in expediting the development process of our impact sourcing software.

Their experience in creating smart workflows would enable us to help to positively influence change in the labor practice in the Philippines.

We would love to partner with ServiceNow, IBM, Salesforce, Skillshare, Samasource, Lynda/LinkedIn, Headspace, and Robert Bosch.