Teleproserv (means remote professional services)

Graduate unemployment is a global problem. According to a 2016 report by the African Centre For Economic Transformation (ACET), about 50% of graduates in Africa do not find work. Only 10% of graduates in Ghana find work after their mandatory National Service (Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research-ISSER). An unemployed medical graduate Stephen, was interviewed and shared his grief of not being able to find work following graduation 3 years on and has been going without food for days occasionally begging friends for money to survive.

This translates into the existing high doctor to patient ratio of 1:1000 with one qualified doctor overseeing a 1000 patients in Ghana (Statista).It appears there are no coordinated strategies designed to address the unemployment problem confronting today’s youth. This should not be the case and my team and I are on a mission to providing decent work to support economic freedom of marginalised groups.

Furthermore, there is an alarming problem of lack of access to adequate PPE Supplies in over 1800 public hospitals and 1300 private clinics in Ghana alone and other parts of Africa. District hospitals use the coping mechanism of borrowing from each other, and statistics indicating 1 in 10 health providers do not protect themselves when administering treatment.

Teskof helps medical facilities, spas, and clinics receive timely medical supplies through our app Teleproserv. With no internet required to operate the app and a click for orders, we reliably and quickly process orders after the best deal has been agreed. We provide high qualifty PPE supplies at low cost. Teskof product consists of 2 main components:

1) Training unemployed medical graduates and economically inactive professionals on modules that help them succeed in the world of work and continuously develop themselves.

2) Connecting medical facilities, individuals and manufacturing companies unparalleled access to affordable PPE supplies to reduce the risk of occupational hazard and infection spread.

Institutions and medical professionals sign up unto the platform and we create profiles for them. They are then able to use available resources such as ordering medical supplies and/or requesting staff from us. They pay a subscription for the platform use however the first 30 days is free.

THE CHANGE MOVEMENT WE HAVE EMBARKED ON

At Teskof, we are helping to unleash the full potential of unemployed medical graduates and professionals to reduce the problem of unemployment, combat poverty and eradicate zero hunger. We are equipping them with enterprise skills to enable them grow professionally and advance in their careers.

With medical facilities, we are helping them reduce the risk of infection by timely supplies of medical PPE's to avoid staff offering treatment without protection. Our mission is to serve billions of the unemployed graduates and professionals seeking work each year after school completion or up to 2 years after graduating as is the current case.

Since 2015, Teskof has enabled more than 1 million + unemployed graduates get into decent work and live independent lives. Teskof has established a good reputation and continues to experience growth. It has also successfully launched over 5000 outreach programmes to help poor people living under $4 a day.

I have a diverse team with multi-faceted skill set and cross-industry knowledge ranging from project management, medicine, accountancy, public health and entrepreneurship. Our innovative culture fosters creative thinking that enables us to think beyond the regular hurdles of our work, remain competitive and come up with something new and unique.

The team employ design thinking, innovation methodology and activities to brainstorm, collaborate, design, and develop solutions to overcome key challenges the end user is facing. With curious mindsets, we are invested in testing different solutions and pushing ourselves to learn more. We are able to identify and define challenges and work together as teammates, colleagues, and users to co-create solutions.

With more than 32 million in population, coupled with 1800 public hospitals and 1300 private clinics, we currently serve up to 25% of these market segments and are looking to double our reach by enhancing our capacity through our participation in the 2023 Global Challenges progamme.

By joining Solve, Teskof can increase its access to partnerships that can spur the growth of more than 70% poverty reduction aiming to be achieved among villages in Ghana in the next 1 to 3 years and expanded into other Africa regions experiencing poverty.

Presently in Ghana, about 230,000 people seek employment each year, for which the formal economy can offer about 4,600 job – approximately 2% (ISSER, 2004). Unemployment levels have reached a worrisome levels with the youth bearing the brunt of the burden.

Tailored technical support will enable us equip these underrepresented groups with social enterprising and entrepreneurial skills to become creative and not only rely on the fewer jobs available with high demands.

Also, rising infection levels in hospitals and clinics can be avoided by the increased availability and promotion of our platform to clinics and hospitals with the help of Solves network.

Thank you.

The digital platform invites unemployed medical professionals seeking work to register with us to access resources and support tools to volunteer on weekends or weekdays based on their availability and subsequently get placed in permanent roles with partner hospitals, clinics, pharmacies etc to increase their quality of life. Our users have testified of better quality of life following our support with finding decent work.

We are committed to ensuring enhancing employability and make healthcare is accessible by all social groups by tackling current inefficiencies in National Health Systems. We implement a holistic approach to tackling staff shortage in hospitals as a result of the alarming graduate unemployment.

In the next 1 to 5 years, we hope to form sustainable partnerships to reduce the rate of unemployment, transform national health systems and ensure a safe work environment in hospitals, clinics and other manufacturing companies that require PPE's in operations. We hope to equip more than a billion individual professionals with enterprise skills so they do not rely on fewer available jobs but become creative.

Our impact goals include but not limited to 

1) New markets and expansion

2) New partnerships for goal achievement 

3) Poverty reduction

Progress Measurement is undertaken via several components.

In one Ghanaian town-Saltpond in the Central region, we created more than 10000 jobs for the youth and young medical graduates through our volunteer training scheme in a year. We have also referred more than 50000 patients to the right health service, having reduced the number of deaths particularly during COVID-19.

Globally, more graduates are found to be youthful but are plagued with the problems of unemployment, and Ghana is of no exception. Ghana is not insulated to the negative effects associated with unemployment like prostitution, armed robbery, cybercrime and others.

1) There should be a reduction in prevalent crimes among unemployed in marginalised communities by 70%. Our trainees would show better life satisfaction and independence after we have helped them find decent work and would be better positioned to support their families.

2) There should be a reduction in the rate infection spread when we supply better qualified staff to our registered institutions to help them manage their inventory effectively. This would promote the protection of members of the public that visit hospitals, health care providers and their patients.

We drive change in health related activities by promoting safe practice and better policies for inventory management in medical facilities namely hospitals and clinics.

Addressing the most challenging global issues prevents transmission into other generations. Helping the unemployed become confident, and independent helps a nations productivity and output. It enables a nation retain its valuable human resources for national growth. This is why Teskof is committed to reducing crime prevalence in marginalised communities and 'Brain Drain' among the African Youths.

Intergenerational disadvantage can emanate from the attitudes, social circumstances or economic limitations of a person’s parents/direct family and the community the inhabit. A study finds that remote areas suffer the greatest proportion of people in areas where there are four generations disadvantaged, and urban areas have the most people in areas where no generations are in disadvantage.

Therefore, it is essential to focus efforts on mitigating multiple generation disadvantage in remote areas. This is why my project offers a remote (No internet required) platform, which is convenient and accessible promoting economic independence and freedom for marginalised groups to reduce the burden on future generations.

We cannot underestimate the role of technology in our quest to solve existing problems. Technology enables us operate efficiently and serve a broad market. Our application is zero-rated. By zero-rated, it does not require you to have internet to order your emergency supplies or even sign up to find work with us. 

It possesses an Analytics dashboard and price comparing tool to reduce bureaucracies in the tender process in most government purchases. It is a software that works using Big DATA, and AI.

The more people work together and learn from each other's experiences while working on a project, the more inclusive the workplace becomes. Hence we encourage our staff to have an open-mind towards learning from one another and also ask if they require help at any point. 

We value honesty, respect and transparency and invest in our staff to ensure maximum satisfaction. We do this by promoting ongoing feedback and also ensure our staff have a proper work-life balance with paid holidays.

We operate a business model of B2B and B2C. It is a freemium model where users have a 30 day free trial and subsequently pay $5 a month to access the supply of PPE's on demand and also pay for premium features for staff request services. 

Regardless of where our clients are located, our location finder service, enables us trace our registered users for the supply of our products and services.

We supply staff to the registered hospitals and clinics to mainly help with proper inventory management to reduce the likelihood of PPE shortages in these facilities either due to lack of inventory management skills and the bureaucratic nature of centralized government PPE purchasing systems.

We remain financially sustainable via our subscription based model where institutions renew their contracts with us upon expiration for the supply of PPE's and our qualified medical staff on our existing database,  grants from investment partners, and continued support from friends and family.

Since bootstrapping, we have received about $200000 as total investment from friends and family and shareholders.