Employment Support for Extollo Alumni in Haiti

A big thanks to our donors to the "Employment Support for Extollo Alumni in Haiti" project!

This summer we held an Alumni Association meeting at our campus with almost 100 alumni, and the event included networking opportunities, job search coaching, and guest speakers from the construction industry. We also gave the alumni a survey that gave us really good data on how our alumni are faring in the local job market, and what skills they feel they need to be successful in the workforce.

We also had graduation for our Port-au-Prince campus at our Bercy campus, to show the new alumni the many construction businesses we are launching, show them how their training can produce structures of high quality, and inspire them to get involved in our tilt-up and metal fabrication operations.

In this class - the first class to be taught by Extollo at the new Port-au-Prince campus - one of the female students really shined in the Masonry Level 1 class, and won an award for her tenacity in learning a new skill in the construction trades. We are inspired and hopeful that more and more women will take our classes and thus join our Alumni Association!

Thank you again for your support of this project to help our alumni gain employment - and thus take even better care of their families, their communities, and their futures.

We had a successful inaugural Alumni Association meeting on April 24, 2021, with 57 alumni attending (75 alumni had registered). During the event there were guest speakers, opportunities to network, and a survey to give Extollo a "baseline" of where our alumni are at in regards to their professional life and to identify how Extollo can better prepare them for the job market.

The survey uncovered that Extollo graduates who have completed Level 1 training and have some work experience see an acceleration in both work days and wages after their Extollo training. However, for those with no work experience, the Extollo Level 1 training alone does not help them become employed.  

We are currently working on a solution: a tiered on-the-job training program to build core skills for unemployed alumni, increase and build more advanced skills for those with some work experience, and migrate experienced graduates into training leadership positions or out into the job market. The program's aim is to bridge work experience gaps and qualify all groups for further advancement.

Thank you again for your support of this project - and all the ways it is having, and will have, on these courageous and ambitious men and women.

Links:

• Impact Report featuring the Alumni meeting

Lots of work is going into gettting this new program up and running. Communication at times is difficult in Haiti, but word has been getting out to our past students and our informational meetings have been well attended. To date, we have just over 90 graduates who have enrolled to be in the Alumni program.

We brought on a new staff member in Haiti who will help plan and lead our Alumni meetings. Together with the General Manager, Administative Assistant, and our new Training Coordinator, the team is in the middle of finalizing the details for the upcoming first Alumni Meeting which will occur on April 24th.

I am excited to travel from the US to Haiti to help with this event.

We currently have 2 special guest speakers who have committed to attending. One will speak on the needs within the contruction sector and the other will be teaching on what it takes to build a successful team. These keynote speakers will do a great job providing our alumni with continued education. 

Thank you for your contributions that are helping make this important program become a reality!

Links:

• Impact Report

Alumni Program – Progress Report

Extollo had many ambitions regarding the launch of the Alumni Association during 2020.  Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic that has been impacting businesses and many organizations around the world forced us to redefine our goals, including those regarding the Extollo Alumni Association that will be a platform to reinforce our alumni and create job and business opportunities for them.

With opportunities being everywhere, two informational meetings regrouping overall 74 students took place to date. They gave a very good insight into the future of the alumni association at Extollo. Among the 74 participants, 71 expressed their willingness to integrate the association by signing a commitment statement.  This act shows their true interest for this initiative and their willingness to put their "skin in the game" in order to make this association a very successful journey for everyone. Most of them can’t wait to see this movement to move forward as they expressed to us in our meetings.

To keep that direction, three more informational meetings are scheduled for the rest of the year 2020 in the scope to mobilize enough alumni to launch the association towards the beginning of 2021 and attend three major events through that year. Thank you for making this new program possible with your donations!

JM

• Alumni_Informational_Meeting_as_of_2020.10.24.docx.pdf (PDF)