Under the auspices of the Microfinance Capacity Building Program jointly undertaken by the PinoyME Foundation (PMEF), the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation/Germany (HSF), the BS in Microfinance equivalency program was launched with the University of Makati (UMak) in 2011 through a Memorandum of Agreement with school officials, microfinance institutions and supporting partners. This is a 5-month program developed after the Dual Training System (DTS) Competency-based Education (CBE) approach implemented by both UMak and the partner microfinance institutions, namely Center for Community Transformation (CCT), Kasagana-Ka Development Center (KSK), Urban Program for Livelihood Finance and Training (UPLiFT) and Alay Buhay Community Development Foundation (Alay Buhay). The course covers General Education, Business and Microfinance subjects. There are 21 participants (middle managers) attending the pilot batch who will graduate on June 2012.

After the first three months of program implementation covering the General Education subjects, a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) was conducted on March 16, 2012 together with the course participants as well as representatives of MFIs and school officials and faculty, in order to assess the implementation of the program and address the gaps towards improving the course content and delivery, among other points. Based on the highlights of the initial M&E, there is a need to fine-tune certain aspects of the program to make it more relevant and effective to the students given their work environment. Concrete follow-up steps were discussed and agreed upon between UMak and the MFI representatives to ensure that the issues and concerns raised by the students were given appropriate action in the continuation of the program and for future batches. UMak was appreciative of the process and acknowledged the identified problems of the program as “birth pains” that will be given due consideration.

The formation of the Local Program Committee for the partners in the National Capital Region is the third in a number of LPCs to be established in all the areas/regions implementing the DTS CBE program. This is deemed an effective and sustainable strategy in the implementation of the program and its further expansion and improvement by acting as focal point in managing the partnership at the local level until the time it is fully turned over to them by the program proponents. The NCR LPC is composed of one principal and/or an alternate representative each from the partner organizations, namely, UMak, Alay Buhay, Kasagana-Ka, UPLiFT and CCT, with Mr. Crisanto “Boysie” Sabino, Executive Director of Alay Buhay serving as lead convenor. A management structure and a secretariat will also be set up in due time to oversee and coordinate the activities in the various LPCs.

For further information and additional resource material, the initial draft of the DTS CBE Guidebook (Operations Manual on the Dual Training System and Competency-based Education Program for Microfinance) was presented to the partners for further comments and guidance. All the program partners and interested parties will be given a copy of the guidebook which is currently being finalized, and an electronic copy of the printed version will be made available in this website soon.