Classroom teaching, not workshops, as most useful building blocks for success

Let’s Go Foundation, in partnership with GE Money Bank, recently presented the results of a survey on women entrepreneurship, the first phase of the Women Entrepreneurship Program which was launched in December last year. The program aims to educate and inspire young Filipina women to be enterprising leaders of society. Data from the survey will be used to develop a curriculum designed for teachers nationwide to adapt into their respective entrepreneurship programs.

Professor Jay Bernardo, founder of the Let’s Go Foundation said, "An entrepreneurial culture will help uplift the quality of life of women, including their family, community, and aid in the economic development of the country." The research study identified the tools that successful women entrepreneurs proved important in their businesses and the factors that affected their decision-making processes. "The research shows that 43 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed find the professor teaching the subjects as the process most useful in growing their businesses against the common notion that workshops are the most effective tools. It is therefore essential to optimize the learning experience of every aspiring entrepreneur by equipping teachers with the right classroom materials," Bernardo added.

The survey showed that 65 percent of growing women entrepreneurs initially worked in a private corporation before going into business. A good 53 percent of the respondents also showed that these women had parents who were both entrepreneurs. It is no surprise therefore, that most of them drew their inspiration of going into business from their families.

In addition, the research study showed that 31 percent of those surveyed said finance is the most critical subject to master, while 26 percent said marketing and another 23 percent said strategic management. These results demonstrate the importance of structural or foundational education necessary for those who pursue majors in entrepreneurship programs.

Tomoko Takazawa, corporate citizenship leader of GE Money Asia also notes, "By learning from the survey completed by Let’s Go Foundation and utilizing our expertise as a bank as well as our experience of implementing financial education programs, we look forward to developing a unique curriculum which would really be beneficial for Filipino students. Empowering women through financial education is GE Money’s global objective for our corporate citizenship initiative."

GE Money Bank president and CEO Ben Kua reiterates, "the survey results are incredibly important because they point us in the right direction toward building a unique and relevant program that offers women interested in entrepreneurship the right foundations to succeed."

Let’s Go Foundation and GE Money Bank are now developing a teaching program to be rolled out to pilot schools this year. Based on the results of the pilot, the program will be refined and enhanced for wider implementation across the country, targeting women’s colleges in the future. "We look at the program as a long term development opportunity that will encourage women entrepreneurship in the Philippines. GE Money is committed to support this initiative and will help roll out the program to more schools in the future," Takazawa stressed.