108 vendors complete business skills program in Quezon City

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 108 vendors from Quezon City have completed the country’s first-ever Vendor Business School (VBS) program, an adult learning initiative that provides beneficiaries with training and coaching sessions on various business and technical skills.

Mayor Joy Belmonte led the recent graduation ceremony for the program, a joint project of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research Resilient Cities Initiative and the Quezon City government.

“I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to those who completed the 10-week course under VBS. I salute all of you because I know that balancing studying while working is not an easy task,” the mayor said in Filipino.

Launched in February, the VBS program allowed vendor-students to take part in group sessions on topics like record-keeping, sales growth strategies, food safety, customer relations, leadership, climate change adaptation and crop seasonality.

They also received one-on-one coaching sessions for three months to further support their livelihood.

The vendors, most of them women, came from different private and public markets and temporary vending sites in the city. Most of them have qualified to receive capital assistance for small businesses under the city’s Pangkabuhayang QC program.

The program is part of Belmonte’s GrowQC Food Security program, which is a result of the city’s membership in the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, an agreement signed by cities around the world to improve food systems and address hunger.