Youth Entrepreneurship Bill

BIDA KA!: Trabaho muna sa 2015

Kasabay nito, asahan na rin ang mas matindi pang batikusan, iringan at siraan sa pagitan ng mga posibleng magsabong sa darating na eleksyon.

Abangan na rin na magi­ging mas mainit na palitan ng akusasyon at kung anu-anong black propaganda ang lalabas laban sa mga kandidato.

Ngunit ang nangyayaring kaguluhang ito sa pulitika ay walang maitutulong upang tugunan ang mga pangunahing pangangailangan ng taumbayan, gaya ng trabaho at kabuha­yan para sa mga pamilyang Pilipino.

Maswerte tayo dahil habang hindi pa tayo tatakbo sa 2016, mas makatutuon tayo sa pagpapasa ng mga panukalang makalilikha ng mga trabaho at kabuhayan, at makakabawas sa kahirapan.

Kaya, mga Bida, sa unang semestre ng taon, bibigyang pokus ng ating opisina ang mga sumusunod na panukalang nais makaangat sa estado ng buhay ng karamihan sa ating mga Pilipino: ang Youth Entrepreneurship Bill, Microfinance NGO Act at ang Poverty Reduction through Social Enterprise Bill.

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Kumbinsido tayo na hindi aarangkada ang tunay na pag-asenso kung hindi matutugunan ang problema ng youth unemployment kaya inihain natin ang Youth Entrepreneurship Bill.

Sa tala ng Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), sa 2.92 milyong Pilipino na walang trabaho, mahigit 50 porsiyento ay kabataan.

Sa panukalang ito, bubuo ang DepEd, CHED, TESDA at iba pang private institutions ng entrepreneurship at financial literacy modules para sa basic education, tertiary at alternative learning education.

Maglalaan din ang pamahalaan ng pondo para tulungan ang mga kabataan na makapagsimula ng negosyo.

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Isa pang panukala na nakatakdang talakayin ay ang Microfinance NGO Act, na layong mapalakas ang mga microfinance NGOs na tumutulong sa maliliit na negosyo.

Pakay ng panukala na tulungan ang mahihirap na makakuha ng dagdag na kapital at iba pang serbisyo upang sila’y makapagpatayo ng sariling kabuhayan.

Bibigyan naman ang microfinance NGOs ng karampatang suporta bilang kapalit sa tulong nila sa maliliit na negosyo.

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Ang panghuli nating panukala para maibsan ang kahirapan ay ang Poverty Reduction through Social Enterprise ­(PRESENT) Bill na layong tumulong sa pagbaba ng 16.6 na porsi­yento ng kahirapan sa bansa pagdating ng 2016.

Ang social enterprise (SE) ay isang organisasyon na may misyong tumulong sa mahihirap na komunidad gamit ang pagnenegosyo at hindi lamang sa donasyon o charity.

Tumutulong ang mga negosyo sa mahihirap na kumita rin sila sa pagkakaroon ng sarili nilang maliliit na negosyo.

Mahalagang maisulong natin ang mga negosyong magbibigay sa mahihirap ng tuluy-tuloy na kabuhayan na tutugon sa pangangailangan at makakapag-angat sa kanilang ­kala­­ga­yan.

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Ito ay malaking hamon sa ating lahat. Sa gitna ng ingay at bangayang pampulitika, iniimbitahan ko kayo na samahan ako sa pagsulong sa mga panukalang ito na makatutulong sa pagbura sa kahirapan sa lipunan.

Nais nating maisabatas ang mga ito bago mag-eleksyon upang magkaroon pa ng mas maraming pagkakataong umasenso ang bawat pamilyang Pilipino.

Sa tulong ng trabaho, kabuhayan at karampatang suporta para sa lahat, tiwala akong walang maiiwan tungo sa kaunlaran.

 

First Published on Abante Online

The best gift to Filipino graduates

Every March, as I attend graduation ceremonies, I get a rush of inspiration seeing so many young Filipinos reach a major milestone and life achievement – completing their studies.

We can see both pride and relief in their eyes. They exchange hugs and high fives, happy to be free from the shackles of their terror teachers.

Parents, too, beam with delight as they applaud the end of tuition fees and other school-related expenses.

This year, about 700,000 fresh graduates will be scouring newspaper advertisements, join job fairs, sign up on online job websites, visit companies and inquire about possible employment vacancies.

A number of these graduates will find jobs in the Philippines; a number will find jobs abroad. Some will work in a formal company; others will be working more informally. And unfortunately, some will join the ranks of the unemployed.

This is the unfortunate milieu our 2015 graduates are entering. We need to build a bridge between education, and employment and entrepreneurship, and we need to fill in the gap at the soonest possible time.

In the case of New Zealand’s Ministry of Education, they created an agency called Careers New Zealand (NZ) to bridge this gap by working with both the private sector and educational institutions.

They determine the qualifications demanded by the workforce then ensure that the right skills and expertise is developed in schools. Therefore, graduates match the job opportunities in the market.

Inspired by New Zealand, our office is currently working with Generoso Villanueva National High School in Bacolod to match the needs of the job opportunities in their area, which include call centers and HRM opportunities, to the skills that they are teaching to their students.

Offering alternatives

To scale this up, Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin Luistro committed to establish placement offices in public high schools in the K to 12 system, upon our suggestion during the budget deliberations of DepEd in the Senate.

But with the lack of jobs to fill in the first place, we need to offer more alternatives to our young graduates, and entrepreneurship should be a viable option for them.

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) compose 99.6% of total establishments in the Philippines and contribute 61.2% of the country’s total employment. Already, MSMEs play a vital role in providing livelihood and prosperity to millions of Filipinos.

Entrepreneurship can also serve as a means for our unemployed youth sector to pave their own way out of poverty and into financial independence. Not to mention, they can create more job opportunities for their peers.

The Department of Trade and Industry is now establishing 100 Negosyo Centers all over the country this year with our recently enacted Go Negosyo Act, which will consolidate all efforts in assisting starting and current small business owners.

Potential clients can access help in business registration, financing, product development, financial management and market linkage from these Negosyo Centers.

We also authored and sponsored the Youth Entrepreneurship Bill, which aims to expose our Filipino youth to entrepreneurship at a young age and give them a good foundation for business creation in the future.

If enacted into law, course programs in entrepreneurship will be developed for primary, secondary and post-secondary schools to give them basic knowledge on financial literacy and how to start and run their own businesses.

Moreover, the bill aims to create a fund and support structures to aid starting entrepreneurs in their product development, access to capital, training and other services, to help them establish their own enterprises.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Bill was passed on third reading in the Senate and was passed on second reading in the House of Congress recently.

With our improving economy, there is no better time than now to empower our youth with the values and skills of innovative entrepreneurship.

I am hopeful that the Philippines can offer our wide-eyed, idealistic, and well equipped graduates a wealth of opportunities – from job openings in successful institutions to the possibility of putting up a thriving business around their innovative, world-class ideas.

Firs published on Rappler.com

Republic Act No. 10679 : Youth Entrepreneurship Act

“At a time when society’s biggest issue is youth unemployment, businesses and governments must work together to help young people develop an entrepreneurial mindset. That means fostering a culture which supports young people to take risks, set up businesses, create jobs and become masters of their own destiny. Whether it’s through finance, mentoring, incentives or training, we must all play our part so that this generation can achieve its full potential. The time to act is now.”

This is a quote from an Ernst & Young report called “Avoiding a Lost Generation,” produced in June 2013 for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit. But it could very well reflect the imperatives for the youth of the Philippines. At a time when our youth popUlation forms a large percentage of our total popUlation, and when many of the unemployed belong to the youth sector, both the government and the private sector must work together to empower young Filipinos to be productive members of society. Aside from boosting job generation and gainful employment, our government must create the structures and the mechanisms to enable youth entrepreneurship as a pillar of inclusive growth.

In order to help create this environment, we propose the passage of the “Youth Entrepreneurship Bill”, which seeks to integrate entrepreneurship into our secondary and tertiary education curricula; facilitate grants both for the teaching and the practice of entrepreneurship; and develop a national youth entrepreneurship program to provide support to young entrepreneurs.

This Bill seeks the cooperation of different departments such as the Department of Education (DepEd), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). Aside from developing and  integrating entrepreneurship courses in the curriculum for secondary and post-secondary school students, they shall also be tasked to facilitate the provision of grants to ensure that our schools, teachers, and teaching partners have the capacity to teach these courses. Grants shall also be made available to support students who are pursuing studies and projects related to enterpreneurship.

Further, this Bill tasks the MSME Development Council to develop a National Youth Enterpreneurship Program that will provide young enterpreneurs with strategic support in terms of access to financing, capital, incubation, as well as technology and skills transfer services The MSME Development Council and the Small Business Corporation shall provide preferential allocation for the youth in connection with available credit funds.

This Youth Entrepreneurship Bill is focused on the youth entrepreneur, is inclusive, and is geared toward all types of entrepreneurial talent belonging to underrepresented populations and communities. This Bill aims for sustainability and will be designed for long-term implementation. If we make this a priority measure and pass this Bill, we can envision a future led by young Filipinos who have initiative, who are motivated and driven, and who have the best skills to succeed in creating businesses, proViding jobs, and making inclusive growth a reality.

 

 PDFicon  DOWNLOAD RA 10679

 

 

First 100 Days: Sen. Bam Champions Inclusive Growth, Reforms

In his first 100 days in office, Sen. Bam Aquino has proven himself to be a champion of inclusive growth and reform through his bills and other initiatives.

Despite being the youngest senator in the 16th Congress, Aquino has been given the task of leading the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, and the Committee on Youth, owing to his vast experience as a globally awarded social entrepreneur and youth leader.

Inclusive growth push

As part of his commitment to push for inclusive growth, Sen. Aquino hit the ground running by filing a slew of priority measures that aim to empower the poor through jobs, livelihood, and access to market and opportunities.

Among them are the Social Value Bill, the Social Enterprise Bill, the Youth Entrepreneurship Bill, the Go Negosyo Bill, the Microfinance Development Institutions Bill, the Fair Competition Bill, and the “Pagkaing Pinoy para sa Batang Pinoy” Bill.

Aquino believes that these bills, once approved, will help solve poverty by generating more jobs and creating more livelihood opportunities through the promotion of micro, small, and medium-scale businesses.

“For me, inclusive growth needs to go through business. There is no way that we can achieve inclusive growth without engaging our countrymen in jobs or in enterprise building,” the entrepreneur-turned-lawmaker said.

“Para po sa akin, ‘yan ang isang pinakamalinaw na kailangang tahaking daan. Hindi po natin makukuha ang inclusive growth o malawakang kaunlaran kung hindi tayo tutulong sa mga kababayan natin na magnegosyo o magkatrabaho.”

Aquino also co-convened an Inter-Sectoral Committee on Business Empowerment (ISCBE), together with the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Landbank, and private sector representatives such as Gawad Kalinga and CARD-MRI. The ISCBE meets regularly to promote greater convergence around government’s inclusive growth agenda and to develop synergistic solutions to unemployment and poverty.

As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Sen. Aquino also brought together key government agencies and members of the private sector and the academe to push for ease of doing business and to assess the country’s readiness for the ASEAN integration in 2015.

Reforms in governance, youth empowerment

The young lawmaker was also the first legislator to suspend his own Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). He also pushed for its abolition when the so-called P10-billion pork barrel scam was uncovered.

In line with his call to abolish the PDAF, Aquino filed the People’s Fund Bill that will give the people greater control over public funds. Through this measure, taxpayers will be given greater control over where public funds should be allocated.

Sen. Aquino has also filed Senate Bill No. 1090, or the Liga ng Bayaning Kabataan Bill, which seeks to overhaul the current Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) to instill among Filipino youth the true spirit of volunteerism and “save them from the clutches of partisan politics.”

The young senator also convened stakeholders and groups pushing for SK reforms and anti-discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, to further empower these communities and give them a voice.

Aquino expressed confidence that some of his priority measures will be enacted into law, particularly his inclusive growth bills, to help the government in addressing the high unemployment and poverty incidences in the country.

“At the end of the day, if we were able to solve the problem of inclusive growth, we’ll be one step closer to the Philippines that we would want for ourselves,” Aquino said.

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