TECH
Phavourites – Lliam Casey ( fourth right ) with team ( from left ): Sam Appleyard , Adam Gray , Connor Jewiss , Emelia Powell , Ella Tindle , Ryan Tuck , Charlie Eve and Joanne Elliott .
WORDS : SARAH WALKER . PICTURE : DOUG MOODY .
Doing students a
Phavour
How the latest mobile app from Hartlepool could help fund degrees – and has the potential to conquer America
At just 17 , school leaver Lliam Casey took the first step to life as a young entrepreneur in Malaysia , working for small tech company , VAV .
It was there that the talented app designer , who will celebrate his 21st birthday in October , first had the idea for the newly launched Phavour mobile app , connecting students with paid work opportunities in their area .
“ At VAV , we used to outsource most of our work to freelancers ,” explained Lliam , who finally saw his dream come to fruition during a special launch event for Phavour .
“ I had this idea , ‘ If only there was an app like Uber but for recruitment and freelance jobs ’.
“ A year later , I started working on Phavour and as the project developed and I began to build a brand and a business , I realised students were the perfect sort of employees and case studies for this kind of app .”
Lliam believes students are generally undervalued as potential employees , despite having lots of skills – and a timetable that frees them up for potential work .
Students are also notorious for having very little money , with most needing to work alongside their studies to help fund their degrees , as well as requiring valuable work experience to prepare them for life after university . And that ’ s where Phavour comes in , with jobs ranging from dog walking or car washing to higher skilled freelance projects such as web development , photography or search engine optimisation ( SEO ) analysis .
Phavour also has a social conscience and has teamed up with Northallertonbased Make It Wild with the aim of planting a tree roughly every time someone does a “ Phavour ” through the app .
Lliam says : “ We also advertise general part-time positions that would be suitable for students .
“ We don ’ t charge for these adverts , but we do take a small commission for oneoff tasks that are completed through the app .”
The app works by enabling each student to create his or her own profile , stating the jobs and tasks they are willing and able to be considered for .
The student is then matched to his or her perfect job through an algorithm which takes into account the student ’ s skills , location , reliability and ratings from previous job posters .
“ We believe we can match the perfect student to the perfect role instantly ,” says Lliam .
“ Through the app we are helping students get experience alongside their degree and we are building up a high volume of job posters on our platform , as they know the students on there are good at what they do .”
Phavour allows its unique technology and mobile platform to be used by individual universities , who can tailor it to their own brand and style – even giving it their own unique name .
And Lliam plans to take the concept to America , where there are more than 5,300 universities and more than 15 million students enrolled in colleges .
But students are just the tip of the iceberg for Phavour , which has plans to create a wider marketplace for freelance jobs for everyone in a post Covid-19 world .
“ We were due to launch Phavour in March – but then coronavirus happened , universities closed , and we were concerned it wasn ’ t going to happen ,” admitted Lliam .
“ But when we all had to go home and we all had to use Zoom or Teams , the idea of working from home really took off .
“ This new working world – this new digital world of work we are all now going to be a part of – made Phavour even more relevant to people ’ s working lives . Now , more than ever , we are excited about its future .”
For more details about Phavour visit phavour . com
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