Country
Philippines

Local Project Partners
Bicol Microfinance Council,
Mindanao Microfinance Council,
MASS SPECC Cooperative
Development Center, CARD MRI,
7 microfinance institutions and 13 partner schools

German Project Partners
AFOS Foundation for Entrepreneurial Development Cooperation,
German Federation of Catholic Entrepreneurs (BKU),
Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK),
German Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AHK),
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,
sequa gGmbH,
German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH)

Donators
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), sequa gGmbH

Duration
1 October 2013 to 30 September 2019
(Overall project term)

The ‘K to 12 programme’ concerns the reform of basic education in the Philippines. In this context, Sparkassenstiftung is promoting dual vocational training, specifically ‘Finance Dualized Education (FDE)’. In practice, this means it is responsible for piloting dual vocational training in the country’s microfinance sector.

The two training courses involved – microfinance and bookkeeping – were rolled out in 2016 already and currently have a total of 300 trainees between them.

The current focus of activities is on engaging microfinance associations in these dual vocational training schemes. This has already been achieved with the Mindanao-based Cooperative Development Center MASS-SPEC, which has been working with Sparkassenstiftung since 2017. MASS-SPEC now offers dual training courses in three member cooperatives and their partner schools. Looking ahead, the project aims to empower the associations to implement training measures on their own.

Together with CARD MRI, the Microinsurance Association of the Philippines and the state training authority TESDA, the project is developing a framework plan for a new training course for microinsurance claims processors.