07 April 2016 – Thirty-eight (38) participants successfully completed the latest Financial Education and Entrepreneurial Workshop for Overseas Filipinos jointly organized by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Philippines / Philippine Consulate General in Geneva (Geneva PM/PCG) and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO-Geneva).
The participants received their certificates of completion in a ceremony that served as the culmination of four weeks of three-hour classes that focused on financial management concepts, marketing and advertising, financial statements, and entrepreneurship. The Workshop included the preparation of actual business plans and exploration of key concepts like inflation and liquidity in the context of the life of an overseas Filipino.
Ambassador Cecilia Rebong, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, highlighted in her congratulatory remarks the dedication of the students in finishing the program and the importance of ensuring sound management of one’s finances. “I hope that, armed with the knowledge obtained from this program, Filipinos can better plan their future and reintegration in the Philippines,” she said.
The Workshop is part of the overall Financial Education program of Geneva PM/PCG and POLO-Geneva, which also provides a roving seminar on how financial management can help address the social costs of migration.
Since the start of the program in November 2014, 238 individuals have completed the Workshop, all of whom received a certificate of completion that can be used as a supporting document for taking advantage of the programs of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that require financial education, while 513 have taken part in the roving seminars.
The program is also part of efforts by Geneva PM/PCG and POLO-Geneva to help empower women, given that women compose the demographic majority of overseas Filipinos in the cantons of Geneva and Vaud, over which the consulate has jurisdiction. END
