An initiative founded by a Filipino business author sought to help train micro, small to medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs), who are severely affected by the quarantine measures, through effective digital certification programs.
The BounceBack Global Movement, founded by author Jason Dela Rosa, announced that it has a goal of training 10 million Filipino entrepreneurs, educators and leaders in the public and private sectors through its newly-launched Digital Bayanihan Initiative.
The community quarantine, imposed over several areas in the country, have cost the livelihood and daily earnings of thousands of Filipinos, particularly daily wage workers and owners of small businesses.
Since March 17 this year, the national government introduced and implemented several phases of the umbrella directive over different parts of the country depending on the risks of transmissions of the virus which causes COVID-19.
These are the enhanced community quarantine, the modified ECQ and the general community quarantine. Most areas in the country are now under GCQ, wherein several industries and some forms of public transportation are allowed to operate.
Dela Rosa, author of a book called “The Practical Entrepreneur” said that the DBI has “world-class” and “validated” webinars that would greatly help MSMEs and other Filipinos recover their financial losses and cope with the health crisis.
“There are a lot of free webinars now on digital transformation, resiliency and business continuity strategies but there’s no common roadmap that will guide entrepreneurs or MSMEs, educators and leaders in their digital transformation journey,” Dela Rosa said.
“What we did is we codified and curated the webinars that transpired in our platform and fused them with The Practical and Resilient Entrepreneur framework and developed several training and certification courses,” he added.
The BounceBack movement is an online concept launched last March, according to its Facebook page.
“For entrepreneurs, freelancers, professionals, citizens and business owners to give each other advice, to help each other out, to support front liners, to support food relief and to just give each other a boost in time of crisis,” its description page read.
Below appears the digital certification programs available for various fields:
For MSMEs
- Certified Digital Entrepreneur
- Certified Digital Business Leader
For the Education Sector
- Certified Digital Educator
- Certified Digital Education Leader
- Certified Digital Course Developer
- Certified Digital Edupreneur
For Public Servants
- Certified Digital Governance Leader
- Certified Digital Enforcers (Cybersecurity, Data Privacy and Audit)
For Risk and Audit Practitioners
- Certified Digital Auditor
- Certified Digital Asset Manager
The movement’s co-founder Gelix Mercader, meanwhile, also announced that they will also be launching a scholarship program for potential applicants of their programs.
“We are launching a scholarship program for them so MSMEs, educators, leaders and government civil servants will be trained for free and help them in their journey to become better after the crisis,” Mercader said.