PH Embassy Organizes Tech Seminar for Filipinos in Portugal

Audrey Pe, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wi-Tech discusses the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education at the Philippine Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. (Lisbon PE photo)

LISBON 25 November 2019 — The Philippine Embassy in Lisbon hosted a pre-Web Summit event in Lisbon, Portugal in an effort to promote Filipino involvement and empowerment in the field of technology on 03 November 2019. 

The seminar entitled, “RISE Filipino: Respect, Inspire, Support and Empower—a Pre-Web Summit Event,” is a project of June Bolneo, a Filipina tech entrepreneur based in Lisbon.

The seminar was attended by 30 participants from the Samakapipo, a Filipino youth organization, members of the Filipino community (FILCOM), and Portuguese involved in the field of technology. 

The seminar began with the opening remarks of Ambassador to Portugal Celia Anna M. Feria who welcomed the participants and gave the importance of enhancing and upgrading one’s knowledge and skills in the field of technology as a means of taking advantage of numerous opportunities that can be found in today’s digital economy.

The first speaker was Audrey Pe, the 18-year-old Founder and Executive Director of Women in Technology (Wi-Tech), a non-profit organization for Women Empowerment advocating for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). In her talk, she identified the pervading problem of the gender gap and the lack of women in technology. At an early age, Pe taught herself to program using online resources, and as her interest grew, she found very little support and no female role models within the technology industry. 

At 15 years old, Pe founded Wi-Tech in 2016 with the aim of empowering women to use the power of technology to close the said gender gap in the tech industry. During her talk, she explained that according to the Philippine Startup survey, only 18 percent of the startups in the Philippines were founded by women and she further noted that globally, women were paid 18 to 22 percent less than their male counterparts in tech. Pe also talked about Wi-Tech’s outreach extension program called “Wi-Teach” wherein they teach the youth computer programming in areas in the Philippines that do not have access to computers. 

In 2018, Wi-Tech conducted Wi-Teach in Marawi to teach 37 high school students the basics of programming. Pe believes that every Filipino should be able to experience the excitement of making their own applications, websites, and innovations. She informed the audience that she will also be preparing for nine more Wi-Teach programs in 2020. 

In the same year, Wi-Tech had the first WiTCon (Women in Tech Conference) in the Philippines. It is a one-day event that aims to expose students and educators to the wide array of research and achievements of Philippine women in tech. Pe explained that the event is open to high school and college students, as well as educators of any field. She further enlightened the audience that the WiTCon is one of the avenues to inspire future generations of technologists to help close the gender gap and use innovation to make a difference in society. It also gave WitCon participants a wider perspective of the technology industry with speakers from various tech companies and workshops giving the participants a peek into various tech fields. Pe was a graduate of the British School Manila and will be attending Stanford University in the fall of 2020.

Pe was followed by Katrina Torrefranca, a Filipina Human Resource Specialist who has been in the human resource industry for a decade, providing insights on career planning and creating and upgrading quality Curriculum Vitaes (CVs).

On career planning, Torrefranca directed the youth to plan early by exploring and identifying career options by examining their interests, skills, and values. According to Torrefranca, career planning for the youth gives much needed direction and focus as to where one will see oneself in the future. It gives a preview of a person’s strength and weaknesses, as well as the skills and knowledge that are required to achieve a person’s aspirations in the future.

After her discussion on career planning, Torrefranca gave tips on making a professional profile through a CV and the use of Linkedln. She provided templates and links to show the kind of CVs human resource managers look for from job seekers. The most important tip for the youth that she emphasized during her talk is to always highlight accomplishments in a CV as it will show the difference one has made at work and the difference one will make to a new employer.

The third speaker, June Bolneo, is a Lisbon-based Filipina who is a remote work advocate and founder of WorkRemote which guides others how to work online. Bolneo’s company has been  helping remote workers and companies who are willing to hire remotely since 2012.

During her talk, Bolneo defined remote working as a working style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. She explained that it is based on the concept that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be executed successfully. Remote working offers employees a flexible lifestyle and better health and wellness, while employers receive higher productivity that comes from the flexibility of remote work and cost savings from not having to pay rent for an office space as well as having office furniture. 

Bolneo also provided the audience a checklist on the six steps to jumpstart an online career.

After the seminar, Ambassador Feria thanked the speakers for sharing their knowledge and raising the profile of Filipinos in Tech as well as being an inspiration to the Filipino youth in Portugal.

The Web Summit is on its fourth year and is considered "the best technology conference on the planet" that gathers the founders and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of technology, fast growing startups, policymakers and head of states. Initial figures from the organizers show that the 2019 edition of the Web Summit brought in 70,469 attendees including the 11,000 CEOs from 163 countires. At least 8,500 developers, 1,221 investors, and thousands of startups including those from AI and machine learning; e-commerce and retail; enterprise software solutions, fintech, and advertising; and content marketing, were also part of this year's Lisbon event. END

Katrina Torrefranca, a Lisbon based Human Resource Specialist gives tips on creating quality CVs. (Lisbon PE photo)

June Bolneo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Work Remote receives a Certificate of Appreciation from Ambassador Celia Anna M. Feria for sharing her knowledge on the various opportunities of online work. (Lisbon PE photo)

For more information, visit https://www.lisbonpe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHLinPortugal/.