Social innovation sows SEEds of employment in Malaysia  

Unemployment in Malaysia

Unemployment is a growing problem in many parts of the world, one such being Malaysia. TCS stepped in to increase job creation in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia by means of a unique social innovation program. 

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook (APES0) 2020 report, states that the unemployment rate in the Asia-Pacific remains the world’s lowest at 4.1%. Malaysia had seen an unprecedented increase in youth unemployment in the previous decade, with about 10.9% of the unemployed population in 2019 being between the ages of 15 and 30. Many of these youth were graduates; educated, yet unemployed.

In an endeavor to increase employability, TCS, along with a Malaysian oil and gas major, is part of a unique initiative in the Southeast Asian country. The program is designed to focus on addressing youth unemployment while leaving a positive impact on communities through social entrepreneurship.

With a proven history of successfully conceptualizing, implementing, and driving such social innovation initiatives at speed and scale in India, TCS Pace™—TCS’ innovation arm—was chosen as the ideal partner in the endeavor. The community-centric, collaborative outreach effort, Social Enterprise Education Lab (SEEd.Lab), was launched in January 2020. The primary aim of SEEd.Lab’s first cohort was to address the rising youth unemployment issue in Malaysia through the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities via social enterprises. 

Social innovation takes root

The 12-month incubation program focuses on empowering unemployed Malaysian youth to become financially self-sufficient, while also creating jobs through their social startups. SEEd.Lab incorporates an end-to-end journey that spans over the essential stages of a startup’s growth. Its participants, aptly named SEEd.lings, are guided through the process of ideating, drawing up their vision and plans, incubating their ideas to build solutions, and commercializing their social enterprise to scale and grow across a target market.

Fostering a culture of innovation through a series of sustained innovation cycles, the program’s curriculum is designed to train these youth to empathize with challenges in the community and to generate innovative ideas to address these. Testing and validating these ideas further to develop business solutions to social problems before pitching them to investors for sustenance and funding is a crucial part of the process.

Nurturing possibilities

The SEEd.Lab program leverages knowledge and skills from TCS’ vast talent base in the areas of design thinking, technology research and innovation, and digital solutions. The social enterprises that have participated in the initiative over the last one year since launch, were given insights to develop skillsets through a series of masterclasses and workshops by recognized coaches and subject matter experts from TCS. It is the first such initiative by TCS outside India and paves the way for offshoots of this model to grow the world over. Indeed, SEEd.Lab is a testament to what a global organization can achieve by partnering with local communities to work successfully within a local ecosystem and impacting the lives of those within it.

The initiative, in its first cohort, launched three startups, namely Malaysia Teman – a care companion service for senior citizens; Foodlabs – a cloud kitchen facility for foodpreneurs to expand their business; and Solvnex – a super app focused on developing and connecting freelancers and gig talent across Malaysia. The three startups have been able to impact over 10,000 lives.

The second ongoing cohort of SEEd.Lab, with five startups in the commercialization stage, aims to address specific social challenges that exist within the four domains of food and agriculture, health and hygiene, education and skills, and personal and financial security. The startups are SAPOT – a digital platform providing mental health services; Sejolly – a collaborative space for therapists and parents of children with autism; ENOKU – a platform for job-seeking People with Disabilities (PWD); Niagable – a market intelligence facility for street food vendors; and OneWay – a vehicle-pooling logistics arrangement system for micro enterprises.