A nation is considered progressive when its citizens collectively help create an environment that fosters more inclusive economic growth through employment and provides conducive ecosystems for small businesses to thrive.
The challenge to create a citizenry of entrepreneurs is daunting, and governments in collaboration with reliable partners with expertise and resources must be encouraged to achieve this goal.
In an effort to address this challenge, a public-private partnership – between the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Bayan Academy and the social responsibility arm of global banking giant J.P. Morgan—was formed with the objective of training Tesda trainers who can then teach ‘skillspreneurship’ or skill-based entrepreneurship to a broader population.
Tesda, through its National Institute for Technical Education and Skills Development, chose trainers from all over the region to attend the “National Training of Trainers on Skillspreneurship”.
“This program aims to introduce entrepreneurship to Tesda technical-vocational graduates to explore the path to entrepreneurship as a way to maximize their technical skills and promote family-based enterprises for employment generation in their own localities,” said Philip Felipe, executive director of Bayan Academy. “With Bayan Academy’s Learning Systems, skills-based entrepreneurship education could be democratized.”
Two ‘skillspreneurship’ trainings were implemented, the first batch having 44 participants while the second having 55. The attendees – who’ve come from all over the country some of them as far as Buyabod in Marinduque or Surallah in South Cotabato – were identified by Tesda as trainers who have the potential to become skills-based entrepreneurs and who can later on help uplift their respective communities and bring employment opportunities to their localities.
The training not only introduces the benefits of ‘skillspreneurship’ but is also aimed at equipping participants with the knowledge of related topics such as customer profiling, market research, location analysis, investing, marketing, and Human Resources among others.
“Bayan Academy has established itself as a pioneer of enterprise development, technopreneurship and transformative education by developing curriculum and learning materials in grassroots enterprise development. We are very proud of our partnership with both Tesda and J.P. Morgan as we look to contribute to long-term efforts towards social equity for all Filipinos,” said Felipe.
“At J.P. Morgan we believe that increased economic opportunity and more widely shared prosperity are essential to the growth and development of countries where we live and operate in. Through our social responsibility arm, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, we hope to create pathways to opportunity for all by supporting economic growth, workforce readiness and financial capability programs in communities around the globe,” said Roberto Panlilio, managing director and senior country officer at J.P. Morgan. “We also recognize the impact made by our partners like Bayan Academy, as they engage with underserved sectors of our society and extend effective technology-based interventions like the Community-Based Technopreneurship Program,” he said.
To ensure continuous learning, program participants are not only encouraged to further that “multiplier effect” (as they share what they’ve learned in their community groups) but also to increase their technical know-how independently through the J.P. Morgan-sponsored entrepreneurship online platform (bayanlearningsystems.ph) where they can access a customized version for Tesda tech-voc graduates.
