One of the highlights during the Mindanao Microfinance Conference held last March 22-23, 2011 with the theme “Raising the Bar towards Greater Social Impact” was the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Mindanao Microfinance Council (MMC), Green Valley College Foundation, Inc. (GVCFI) and PinoyME. The signing of the MOA is another milestone MMC as it was able to seal the second partnership for the implementation of the Dual Training System Competency-based Education for Microfinance. Further, Mr. Danilo Songco, President and CEO of PinoyME, during the Panel Discussion on Partner Agencies’ Strategic Plans and Updates, elaborated the Dual Training System Competency-based Education for Microfinance which, solicited interest from among the participants.
The partnership between MMC, GVCFI and PinoyME will effectively serve the needs for competent manpower of microfinance institutions operating in southern Mindanao particularly the provinces of South Cotabato and Saranggani. The signatories to the MOA are Mr. Jeffrey Ordoñez, Executive Director of MMC; Mr. Romeo Sustiguer, Jr., Executive Vice President of GVCFI; and Mr. Danilo Songco, President and CEO of PinoyME. Witnessing the signing of the MOA are, Mr. Djan Capinpin, MMC’s Program Officer for Capacity Development and Membership Services; Prof. Ronald Chua, PinoyME’s Lead Convenor for Capacity Building; and Mr. Elenio Yap, Hanns Seidel Foundation’s Program Officer.
Under the partnership, GVCFI will have two options for program offerings. Initially, it will integrate the Microfinance Technology National Certificate II in its Center for Technology Excellence and have it registered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). It will be a one-year intensive and competency-focused training program in two venues, in-school and in-company. GVCFI may consider rolling-out a 4year-degree ladderized program which will be integrated under the existing programs of its Business Management Department. In both offerings, GVCFI will be using a competency-based curriculum and will be implemented using the dual training system (DTS).
Under the DTS, the students will be learning from two venues, the school and the industry. DTS is seen to be an effective system to transform the students into competent loan officer, team leader and branch manager. As the industry partner, MMC will provide technical support to GVCFI in matters pertaining to industry trainers, recruitment, selection, in-company training of students and competency assessment of graduates. PinoyME, with the support of HSF, will provide the GVCFI and MMC the necessary technical support, including among others, the competency-based curriculum, the copyrighted instructional materials, technical assistance and training of faculty on dual training system management.
