OUR STORY

 

IMPACT SOURCING WITH HEART

With over 60 collective years of experience in Global Business Services (GBS), we are providing this rapidly evolving sector with an empowered new talent source. Our focus is on equipping our shadows to deal with the ever evolving future of customer contact in a more complex, human-centric, digitally enabled environment. This allows us to increase value for our customers while providing sustainable – and increasingly relevant – jobs to the youth of South Africa.

We place focus on unemployed school leavers (matriculants) and excluded youth. Our students are taken through a three-month purpose specific programme that, upon successful completion, concludes with a career offer. We only recruit the number of students that we are able to place into careers, thereby helping to secure them employment. Our candidates are matched to the hiring company’s recruitment criteria to ensure seamless transition and successful outcomes – promoting employee retention.

Our aim is to have our training locations close to where the majority of our candidates live to reduce time, budget and travel challenges for students. By doing this we help to address the economic segregation legacy of South Africa’s past, while stimulating the local economy of disadvantaged areas. Developing our centre in a previously disadvantaged area is innovative, unique and game changing. Making a better future by ensuring we help to redress the past positively together, and creating a circle of hope for excluded youth who are encouraged to the best they can be, enabling their absorption into the GBS industry. This results in fewer youth choosing the path of antisocial activities

WHAT WE DO

SUPPORT AND UPLIFT.

Our passion is to support and sustainably uplift youth employment in South Africa.

EDUCATE AND PREPARE.

Our three-month human-centric curriculums help build an empowered new talent source to transform the future of customer contact.

CREATE CAREERS.

We focus on removing previous barriers to employment and every successful student is matched with one of our partners, opening the door to their long-term career.

SHADOWSHIP.

Our heart-centred philosophy helps our growing family “pay it forward”, building hope in the lives of young South Africans.

WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

Located within communities

We base ourselves close to where the majority of our candidates live, improving quality of life. Our first centre opened in Mitchells Plain in 2020. Our new centre opened in Mitchells Plain in January 2021

High impact ROI

There is a real return on investment in that any student on the course is permanently employed on successful completion of the   3-month course.

Creating permanent jobs not just providing skill or contract jobs

We only recruit the number of students that we are able to place into careers, thereby helping to secure them permanent employment.

Career creation rate

We have over a 90% career creation success rate into permanent jobs. Students are generally placed in jobs with our international Business Process Outsourcing partners. Delivering great customer experience to international customers.

 No cost to students

There are no costs to students for the Shadow program. They also receive a monthly stipend for the 3 month period

 Stimulating the SA economy

We provide an accelerated, effective and efficient way for our students to become economically independent and contributors to the SA economy.

 Changing the South African story

By creating permanent careers we are not only changing our students lives but that of their families, their community and our country.

 Addressing Youth unemployment

Potential candidates are mainly excluded youth or recent matriculants that are still unable to find employment. Helping to tackle SA’s largest challenge, youth unemployment which is over 60%

Holistic curriculum: Focusing on three core areas

Self – building self-esteem to give a foundation of self-confidence and the belief that they can succeed and contribute to society.

Human – Bringing the heart back into human engagement with a focus on emotional intelligence.

Future -Digitally enable them to evolve within a digital world.

SO WHY "SHADOW"?

The story of Shadow is heart-felt. One you won't forget.
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NOEL CARBUTTOUR HEARTBEAT

Vision without the pulse of an action is merely a dream. Vision with action can transform the world. Noel has an unspoken intuition for bringing the right hearted people together. Shadow Careers needs a beating heart to grow and connect the dots.

Noel’s heart lies in developing and leading organisations and its people to achieve their fullest potential, in a manner that creates harmony in value throughout the entire eco-system it finds itself in. A deeply purpose-led human, Noel qualified as a CA (SA) in 2003 through Deloitte, completing secondments for Deloitte in Australia and the United States. Noel was the Managing Director of Capita South Africa, having previously occupied the Finance Director position for three years. Noel was recognised by the industry body, BPeSA, as CEO of the year in 2019 and for creating the most jobs in the sector. Under his leadership, Capita South Africa was the fastest growing GBS company in South Africa for 2018 and 2019; under his tenure, the UK’s most recognised and trusted brands chose Capita South Africa to manage significant portions of their customer base. Noel was the Financial Controller of VISA’s mobile money acquisition in South Africa, Fundamo. He also headed up the finance function for a NASDAQ-listed ERP Company, QAD Inc. in South Africa and has worked in the HIV/AIDS research industry at the Kwa-Zulu Natal University Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine. Funds under his care were WHO, John Hopkins, PEPFAR and AACTG, amongst others.

 

JOHN ELLISOUR VOICE

John is the voice of Shadow. His ability to connect with people from all walks of life is what makes him respected and loved. John finds magic in the little things that in turn become the essence of the bigger picture.

John is a graduate in Human Environmental Sciences 2013 from the University of Alabama (USA) honours roll and holds an associate degree in International Business. A South African representative swimmer, John was a two-time KZN swimming captain, as well as captain at Alabama University. He is the director and co-founder of M&B Events, and has a philanthropic philosophy with a deep desire to help others. As the voice of Shadow Careers, John heads up the forefront of Shadow Career’s online presence, including on and offline marketing, social media and website management. 

EDWIN PIETERSENOUR MENTOR

Edwin is our Mentor. He is someone who teaches you to discover the hope inside yourself. Edwin is the representation of what a positive Shadow should aspire to be.

Edwin is a leadership altruist with a heart for empowering youth and children towards a future filled with possibilities. With a BComm, post graduate BPhil, ACC, PRINCE2 certified Project Manager and ICF Certified Leadership Coach qualification, Edwin has extensive experience in Organisational Development and Transformational Leadership. He is the former Regional Head of Operations (Eastern Europe, Middle-East and Africa) for BPO (Strategic Above-Market Procurement) servicing BAT and AB-InBev and has managed and led culturally diverse and geographically dispersed teams in both Moscow and Cape Town. He also has practical, in-country experience delivering projects in Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, Seychelles, Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, Dubai, Zimbabwe and the UK. Edwin is the founder of The Greenchild Project – an accredited, certified private training academy focused on tertiary education and employment for Persons Living with Disabilities, as well as the founder of The Greenchild Foundation, an NPC aimed at enabling entrepreneurial, leadership and other interventions for previously disadvantaged children in the Western Cape.

ADJOA AYIVOROUR SPIRIT

Adjoa’s incredible energy introduces her before she even speaks. Adjoa is fearless, independent and positively infectious and that is why we refer to her as the our spirit of Shadow.

Adjoa is passionate about making a difference in South Africa and the African continent. A hands-on CFO and Qualified Chartered Accountant for over 14 years, Adjoa gained GBS experience as Finance Director at Capita SA, and was the CFO and an Executive Board member for the Sub-Saharan operations of NEC, a listed Japanese Tech Company. Here, she led the shared services function (Finance, IT, Legal, HR and back office admin) in four African countries. Adjoa is a member of IFRS professional practice group at EY, and has handled facilitation and product development within a training company. She worked at PwC within the Capital Markets Group, where she did IFRS accounting advisory work and completed her four articles. Adjoa has worked extensively throughout the rest of Africa, engaging with customers at an executive level. A non-executive director on the Board of the Democracy Works Foundation. Adjoa completed her MBA at Henley Business School. Her dissertation topic researched organisational values as she is passionate about assisting individuals, corporates and governments succeed and to make a real difference as they daily live by their values. Adjoa is a Financial Executive at Altron Bytes Managed Solutions.

FRANCO COTUMACCIOOUR HEART

Franco is the heart of Shadow. Franco’s compassion and dedication shines through every project he acquires. His ability to make everybody feel like a somebody is what makes him so loved and easy to work with. 

A few years after qualifying as a lawyer in 1986, Franco set up roots in the UK for a burgeoning spin-off of the South African business, BGL. In 2003, the company looked to offshore part of its UK business processes and became the first UK Contact Centre to set up in Cape Town, South Africa. Growing homesick during commutes, Franco returned to South African shores and set up his own business, Full Circle in 2007. With a long-standing vision to help alleviate unemployment levels in South Africa, Franco used this platform to position South Africa as the offshore destination for quality English speaking voice. Here, he indirectly assisted in creating thousands of jobs in the GBS sector. In 2012, Capita UK acquired Full Circle and Capita South Africa was established, with Franco heading up the business as MD until April 2018. In this time, Capita SA became one of the country’s leading GBS providers and a multi-award-winning company recognised for its role in job creation. Franco was equally recognised at the industry awards for job creation in 2019, the verbatim being: In recognition of over 15 years of commitment to the GBS sector in South Africa and for being one of the early pioneers, creating the first GBS jobs in Cape Town. His many years of service on the BPESA board have helped shape the industry and contributed to the creation of over 30,000 GBS jobs. In 2020 Franco created Shadow Careers. Dedicated to creating careers for young unemployed South Africans, Shadow Careers develops experience that sustainably equips youth for human-centric careers in the GBS sector.