SENTUH x SME CORP COLLABORATION

Identifying, training and onboarding 250 B40 category women

We are happy to announce that Sentuh Sinergi Sdn Bhd; the company behind the Sentuh App, has been selected as one of SME Corp’s Program Providers, specifically under the Competitive Skills: health and lifestyle or Holistic Therapy program.

The program is called ‘Bina, Mula & Berjaya’ or BMB.

The objective of this program is for Sentuh to identify, train and onboard 250 women from the B40 group from the 4 identified localities of Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bharu and Kota Kinabalu. 

There are 4 goals for the program:

Goal 1: To provide training on Sentuh App Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for trainee with some background on wellness or beauty therapy

Goal 2: To help more therapist from the B40 group especially women and single mothers earn more income

Goal 3: To provide the equipment to complete the onboarding process, and instruction on the equipment. 

Goal 4: To onboard 250 therapists onto Sentuh platform 

As a company, we take pride in making an impact, providing the platform for both the consumer to access and book quality wellness services in and around them; as well as the service providers to access bookings by consumers and receiving the bookings as a career or even an assistance to their existing livelihood. 

From our data that we have collected since 2018, we find that almost 90% of all our bookings are made by women, and even for sessions booked for men, the actual bookings are typically done by a woman. 

In view of the high demand from women users, the supply will also have to be reciprocal. More than 90% of the service providers or wellness therapists are women. Interesting fact – almost all these women are from the bottom 40% of the income group. 

We realize that we are providing these women access to decent work opportunities and the potential of economic growth. And this ties in with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. 

They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

At Sentuh we’re working hard to contribute in our own way, to two of these goals – #3 (Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages) and #8 (Promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.).

Since we started in 2018, we have trained and onboarded more than 300 therapists, of which more than 80% are women from the B40 income group. Thus far we have completed more than 15,000 sessions and paid out more than US$250,000 to our therapists.

The US$4.5 trillion global economy of wellness is fast-growing, resilient, and pervasive. The forces driving consumers to spend on wellness are sufficiently strong that wellness industry growth around the world has been robust and has exceeded GDP growth (even in years in which the global economy shrank). In a survey of roughly 7,500 consumers in six countries by McKinsey, 79% of the respondents said they believe that wellness is important, and 42% consider it a top priority. We believe there’s nothing but growth on the horizon for wellness in Malaysia, and this growth through companies like Sentuh, supports job creation for women.

Our goal for the next 12 months is to provide skills training / upskilling training and onboard 300 additional women on the app with the opportunity to generate or increase their income, with a target that their monthly take home pay of US$300 while working in a more flexible schedule. This allows them to manage their time better while still having the security of some form of social protection.

The recognition of Sentuh’s efforts by SME Corp, by acknowledging and partnering with us for the Bina, Mula & Berjaya program is very encouraging. SME Corp has allocated a fund to subsidize the training for the identified women from the B40 group to participate in and to provide them the opportunity to be part of this gig-economy through the Sentuh App platform.

The Wellness Industry is poised for growth and Sentuh, now in it’s 5th year of operation will grow with it, onboarding more and more therapists, while increasing our users and making an impact not just economically but socially as well.