VICE President Sara Duterte and Go Negosyo founder Jose Ma. “Joey” Concepcion 3rd are exploring ways of incorporating entrepreneurship as a subject in senior high school.
In a meeting last October 17, Concepcion discussed with Duterte, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), ways in which entrepreneurship skills may be taught to students.
One avenue is to have veteran and established entrepreneurs join Go Negosyo roadshows and teach the students at their schools
Another is for students to observe actual mentoring with active and aspiring entrepreneurs.
A third option is teaching students entrepreneurship through the help of private companies, specifically those in the agriculture sector.
“Our idea is if we open up this avenue to young people, there would be a way for them to find an alternative path to success,” said Concepcion.
Under the existing K to 12 program, students attend school for a minimum of 13 years. An average of four more years would be added if the student decides to pursue higher education.
“Not all families have the resources to support children through the completion of the entire curriculum,” Concepcion said.
“We could help these young people find their path, focus on it, and maybe one day the students can turn it into a business,” he said, pointing out that there many entrepreneurs succeeded even without the benefit of higher education.
Concepcion said that Go Negosyo has employed different methods of reaching out to potential entrepreneurs over the years.
It has also conducted plenary events targeted at women, the youth and migrant workers, as well as thematic events that focus on introducing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) to digital platforms and to opportunities offered by the tourism sector.
During the height of the pandemic, Go Negosyo ported its mentoring programs to social media and conferencing platforms, enabling it to continue mentoring entrepreneurs in the provinces and even across the Southeast Asian region.
Duterte said the DepEd can use Go Negosyo’s assistance in improving its agriculture and fisheries schools as well as in conceptualizing a way for it to put its idle lands to productive use in teaching children basic gardening and farming skills.
She said entrepreneurship mentoring can become part of co-curricular activities, and that preparatory activities can begin before the DepEd pilots the enhanced senior high school curriculum next school year.
The feasibility of training teachers in entrepreneurship mentoring was also taken up at the meeting.
Concepcion said entrepreneurship training for senior high school students would be timely. “We want to inspire the students to become entrepreneurs because we now have a more conducive environment, thanks to how social media and digital technology are bringing down so many barriers to entrepreneurship and making it more inclusive,” he said.
It will not be the first time that Go Negosyo has collaborated with government agencies for its entrepreneurship advocacy.
Its formal training programs are implemented in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture, while its mall-based mentoring roadshow 3M on Wheels is conducted in coordination with local government units.
Its regional mentoring program, Asean Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network, is now being implemented through the Asean Business Advisory Council and the Asean Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and is funded by the Japan Asean Integration Fund.
Also present at the meeting were Go Negosyo Senior Advisers Engr. Merly Cruz, Josephine Romero and Dr. William Dar, and Executive Director Mina Akram, DepEd Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Instruction Alma Ruby Torio and Undersecretary Michael Wesley Poa.
