A startup in South Africa has developed a professional services platform named WiselyHired set to help tap into retirees’ skills and experiences by enabling them to earn incomes upon selling their services online.
According to the founders of WiselyHired, the startup was developed inspired by statistics that counted retirement as the third most stressful experience after death and divorce in a family.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Aidan Classe, lead designer at WiselyHired, said: “There is a huge skill set among the retirees out there, and we at WiselyHired saw the need to continue making them useful. It’s very depressing for one to be working one day, and the next day, their skills are no longer needed because of ‘old age’”.
Classe was however quick to add that WiselyHired is not exclusively for the retirees only. “If a job arises and there is no one among the retirees to take the job, then anyone with the right qualifications can take up the job,” he said.
Many people may say that jobs associated with retirees are hard to deliver online, for example engineering or driving. To this, Mike Jenkins, WiselyHired Senior Developer said: “We are currently finishing up with building the platform, and with time, the retirees who sign up will dictate the job types they can offer online.”
The platform will have three levels of job groups namely, the entry level, where retirees have some time to spare and can offer services like storage of goods for people in their houses. Others will include middle level, where retirees can offer services like accounting, electrician, and the top level, where a retired CEO, CFO and other people possessing business skills can offer consultancy services to companies.
The startup’s developers say they are looking for investors. Last week, it was among the startups that pitched to investors at the DEMO Africa conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
WiselyHired’s official launch is scheduled for December 2012.
