Xperience Base App

Improving the quality of education by providing a platform where students and young graduates can gain access to quality internships and work experience placements hassle-free.

The educational system in Cameroon is in such a way that students get more theory lessons and fewer practicals. In our current educational system with a focus on University education, the only time a student has the opportunity to gain practical knowledge is during internships. Internships are a vital part of every student's life as within this period the student gets to have a feel of the real-world application of theories learned in school or in the classroom. 

But gaining internship placements in Cameroon is never always easy as most companies don't like taking in interns and even when they do they don't allow them to carry out core tasks which can lead to more experience gathering.

Furthermore due to tight school work schedules students find it difficult to search for and apply for internships in the right companies necessary for their career paths, at the end of the day most students apply for internships in companies without due diligence and end up not gaining proper knowledge after the internship period.

There's a huge unemployment rate in Cameroon, despite the fact that there are lots of unemployed graduates organizations still find it difficult to find suitable workers because of a lack of practical skills. Read here to get a third-party observation and data.

The solution at XPERIENCE BASE is to Bridge the gap in the training experience of students using digital technology. The aim is to make training and internship placement processes as simple and hassle-free as possible for students by creating an application platform where students just need to apply in a single step and we will match them with the best company for their internship; based on their career path, location and schedule. All this will be achieved by partnering with companies that take interns and professional training seriously.

In a like manner, our solution will extend to young graduates who need companies where they can work in order to gain practical work experience so as to boost their resumes.  

We are looking at the bigger picture where we will work with students and young graduates in Cameroon in order to boost their careers with extra services such as organizing online seminars on career paths, entrepreneurship, resume writing, and self-development amongst others. 

our goal is to bridge the skill gap in Cameroon.

XPERIENCE BASE targets all prospective internship and work experience placement seekers in Cameroon. 

Our target profile will range from current university students who need to carry out internships as per university requirements as well as recent graduates who want to have practical work experience in companies. 

Currently, students and young graduates find it difficult to get internship or work experience placements. This situation goes a long way to preventing skill acquisition and development in young professionals. Once a person does not have the right practical skills it becomes difficult getting a job.

With this solution, a horizon is opened to give students the opportunity they deserve in skill development and industrial training. This will not only benefit the students who will have higher chances of getting jobs but also companies who will employ them and benefit from higher productivity.

As a university student in 2019, I was required to carry out an internship as a university requirement but I found it difficult to get an internship placement. I was not the only one as many of my mates found it difficult to apply in some cases we were even asked to bribe in order to get an offer. 

When I finally got an offer from a local credit union to be an accountant intern I was hardly assigned any meaningful roles and I would just run errands till my internship period was over.

This experience gave me the motivation to come up with the idea of building a solution to enhance the experience students get before and during internships. Matching students to the right companies.

I learned Computer programing om UDEMY and i\m proficient in mobile development with flutter and i\m currently working on the MVP app. 

In addition to my personal experience and that of my friends during and after university I carried out a survey on how difficult gaining quality internships was in Cameroon in 2022 most students found it extremely difficult to find a placement and those who got one hardly gained any proper training or exposure.

At the moment in Cameroon, most students need to manually write applications for internships with companies which is time-consuming and there’s never an assurance of getting a placement, or students can't even track the progress of their application. 

 Currently students apply blindly to companies without knowing if the company takes interns or not and they have to wait and hope to get a response which often never comes or comes very late.

I witnessed a situation where a student applied for an internship and got a response 1 year after he applied and the period for internship was already over by the time he got the response.

Xperience base is a mobile application platform that aims to connect students and young graduates with the best companies for professional training and experience by matching student profiles with the best companies where they'll get career-specific training at the right time and without all the pain.

Our goal at Xperience Base is to revolutionize how students search for internship placements in Cameroon.

I believe using a mobile app to solve to this issue is best because the solution can easily be scaled to reach more students without a lot of further investment. 

I graduated from the University of Bamenda and that is where I want to start my impact. 

The goal of the first year is to provide quality internship placements for 100 students in Cameroon specifically from the University of Bamenda.

The target is to partner with organizations or companies in Bamenda that take the training and development of interns seriously. Xperience Base will have the long hard task of finding these companies so students won't have to. 

Out target is to find companies in as many sectors and departments as possible so as to provide a wide range of training possibilities,

• Banks, Insurance Companies, credit unions, and other related Financial Institutions
• Businesses and Entrepreneurs
• Corporate Organizations
• Manufacturers and Distributors
• Real Estate Owners, Developers, and Contractors
• Research and Development Companies
• The Government (Public Sector)
• Hospitals
• Hotels, businesses, and Start-Ups of different kinds

The Xperience Base solution will be provided in the form of a mobile application for android and IOS. 

The application is being built using Flutter, dart, PHP, MySql and FireBase. All these advanced development frameworks and languages can enable us to provide a quality and beautiful-looking mobile app.

• Flutter for design and user experience
• Dart for app functionality 
• PHP for application API(Application programming interface)
• MySql and FireBase for storing data

Xperience Base will be launched this year and the goal during this first year will be to provide quality internship and work experience placements to 100 students from different student areas in the university of Bamenda. 

We are targeting a small number of students because, in the first year, we don't have partnerships with a lot of companies to take in more interns for training. 

But as the years go by the number of students will grow as our partnerships with companies also grows.

The major setback of Xperience Base is limited finance to pursue partnership contracts with companies or organizations that will train students. 

Reaching out and negotiating with organizations to provide the best internship experience is also difficult and time-consuming.

Our major set back can only come from the fact that we won't be able to partner with as many companies as we will like to which will directly impact how many interns we can take and properly match.

At the moment Xperience Base has a partnership with 2 tech hubs and 1 financial institution.

1) CIVILSALT: 

CivilSalt is a syndicate of software development volunteers in Bamenda, that aims at promoting digital inclusivity and awareness across Bamenda through tech conferences, school outreaches, and community software projects. Our goal is to partner with them in order to provide Software developer interns an opportunity to work on real-life community software projects and solutions.

2) Code-128: 

Code-128 is a for-profit making software development company in Bamenda that builds tailor-made software for organizations and enterprises and also helps organizations transition into the use of tech. We aim to give students through this partnership the opportunity to learn skills necessary for starting up their own software development businesses.

3) GLOVICC:

GLOVICC Global investment visionary company is a microfinance institution operating in Bamenda with a workforce made of an average age of 35 and a capital of over 1000,000,0000 XAF. GLOVICCS's goal is to end poverty through the provision of micro-financial services to the most vulnerable in society. Our goal is to partner and provide finance interns with the necessary skills needed to work in any financial institution and with the skills necessary to create their own finance cooperatives.

MODEL CANVAS

PROBLEM: 

Getting training and experience placements is never an easy process for students in Cameroon. Students find it difficult to find internship placements. Companies hardly advertise internship opportunities and hardly respond to internship applications. Internships are very important in skill development and this situation leads to lower skill levels as students most often don't get the required skills.

EXISTING ALTERNATIVES:

At the moment students need to manually write applications for internships with companies which is time-consuming and there’s never an assurance of getting a placement on time even if a placement is gotten it's never an assurance of quality training.

SOLUTION:

Xperience base is a mobile application platform that aims to connect students and young graduates with the best companies for professional training and experience.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS: 

The major segments we are looking at targeting are university graduates and university students in Cameroon.

CHANNELS:

•Sponsor and organize seminars in universities across Cameroon to create awareness about the importance of out-of-classroom training and about Xperience Base.

•Sponsor Ads on Facebook and Instagram

MONETIZATION:

XPERIENCE BASE will charge clients (Students and young graduates) Applicant Administrative Fees or Subscription fees of 10000 XAF so as to match them with companies and successfully help in securing internship and work experience placements. Further amounts will also be charged for carrier counseling and self-development training.

The only source of investment at the moment is my personal savings. I am currently employed and all of my savings are going into building this venture. 

Once the venture is operational after year 1 I will go in for a microloan to expand operation into another city out of Bamenda. Also, all income generated within this period will be re-invested to expand partnerships.