Walmart Institute initiative to be replicated in other countries

Program focuses on young people who seek professional development.

    Sao Paulo, September 25, 2012 - Walmart Institute (IWM) has given a new leap in relation to its private social investment and for the first time, it will have one of its social technologies developed in Brazil - The Social Retail School (ESV) - spread to other countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. This achievement comes from a new partnership signed between the Walmart Foundation and the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and the Aliança Institute.
     Ongoing since 2010, the Social Retail School provides training and the insertion of skilled young people into the labor market, with a focus on retail. The program has trained more than 4000 young people in the five states where it has been held - Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Bahia, Ceara and Sao Paulo.
By the end of this year there will be planned activities for the first phase of internationalization, which involves three steps. The first one is the translation and adaptation of all teaching materials - for students and teachers - used at ESV. Then, consultants who specialize in education will visit seven countries - China, South Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Chile, Mexico - to identify, together with local social organizations, possibilities to organize local ESVs. A study along the same lines will also be made for Brazil, consolidating and strengthening the experience accumulated so far by Walmart Institute and its partners.
The consultants will also come to Brazil to deeply learn about the strategies and methodologies used by the program, and from there, build a map of possibilities to implement the program overseas. The third and final stage of this first phase will be to conduct a mapping of the ESV, identifying success stories and experiences from each of the schools in all States in order to guide the other consultants.
According to Paulo Mindlin, director of IWM, it is a great achievement as it is an acknowledgment of the company and Walmart Foundation for the great results achieved by the program so far.
The proposal, according to Susan Pezzullo, Director of Programs for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), is to gain scale, but always ensuring the quality of training. “As the impacts have been positive in Brazil, I think the challenge now will be to reproduce similar results. Walmart Institute is seeking to identify what is essential so as to replicate the results we've seen in the country elsewhere, doing so in less time and with more efficiency”, she says.
The goal is to keep the essence of the program methodology, adapted to local issues that meet the challenges of the country. Vinicius Maffalti highlights that the great legacy the ESV will not miss is the dimension of its young people’s life projects, in view of their personal and professional development.
Currently, the ESV promotes the insertion of about 80% of the young people who participate in the training activities. The result draws attention to one of the major global challenges: youth unemployment. According to the ILO (International Labour Organisation) about 75 million young people are currently unemployed worldwide. “This is a program that responds to a demand that is not only in Brazil but worldwide. Surely this has a significant impact because it is a social technology that has the potential to be replicated elsewhere, in places with very similar demands”, said Vinicius Malfatti, IWM coordinator, responsible for the Social Retail School.
According to Malfatti, the ESV brings an answer to the yearnings of the youth, to their getting their first jobs, and the program is aligned to opportunities within the business itself, as retail is considered a major gateway to the labor market. He also emphasizes the importance of the partnership with the Government, which also faces the challenge of ensuring the training of young people for the country's development.

Example to be shared
For the young people who have participated in the formation of the ESV, it is this look at the construction of a life project that makes all the difference to their professional insertion. Claudia Cristina Antunes, 19, a participant in the class of 2010 at ESV Barueri (SP), is an example of a girl who knows what she wants in life, having already drawn her career path within retailer Walmart.

This young lady, who works at Sam's Club Osasco, already changed positions three times since entering the store in December 2010, due to her good performance. Today, she serves as check-out inspector, but believes that she will soon be promoted to be a supervisor. For 2013, her plans have also been defined: the beginning of a Marketing degree in order to gain a position at the company office at a later stage.
All this determination, she states, came from the experience she earned at the ESV. “I learned a lot of things for my personal and professional life. It is a program that opens up our eyes, that shows we can grow”, said the girl, who was delighted with the news of the internationalization of the Social Retail School. "It will be great for the program to go elsewhere. I hope it can transform the lives of more young people. "