BizCamp training to help entrepreneurs

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty school teachers individually sponsored by local mining companies who attended the just-concluded “BizCamp Train the Teachers” seminar-workshop “will play a big role in bringing to indigenous peoples and communities the benefits of entrepreneurship.”

Ramon Yazon, head of the Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) of the Canadian Embassy in Manila which conducted the seminar-workshop, said the idea of bringing the BizCamp Training to the Philippines “was to make it a gateway for Filipinos, especially indigenous people, in unleashing among them the power of entrepreneurship.”

The five-day training session was conducted by Peggy Williams, an instructor of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). She has been training teachers in Israel and West Bank Bizcamps.

The training program provided the participants not only the proficiency in preparing business plans but also training business concepts, practice skills, including negotiation, pricing and work on the completion of their business plans for their own individual community-based enterprise.

Chito Gozar, OceanaGold Phils. Inc. vice president for communications and external affairs, said: “We at OceanaGold Philippines, are fully supportive of such program which is truly effective and beneficial to our communities and indigenous people.”