Johnlu Koa of the French Baker, Jessie Sincioco of the Chef Jessie serial restaurants, and Myrna Bituin of Betis Crafts led the panel of entrepreneurs who reviewed the draft manuscript of “Windows to Entrepreneurship: Ideas, Exercises and Projects,” a guide on how to teach entrepreneurship at the collegiate level, at a Delphi conference held at the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI) last Monday, November 19.
Other members of the review panel were business and entrepreneurship teachers and students from Miriam College, University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines.
A collaboration between the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation (SERDEF) and the Entrepreneurship Educators Association of the Philippines (ENEDA), Windows to Entrepreneurship addresses the dearth of learning materials for entrepreneurship educators, trainers, mentors, adult learners, and the academic community in general.
It is aimed to raise the quality of entrepreneurship education in the country, considered crucial to the building of an entrepreneurial society and in turn to the attainment of the national goals of economic growth and poverty eradication.
The Delphi conference is expected to gather, according to Dr. Herminia Fajardo, SERDEF Trustee and Research and Information Cbair, a “confluence of thoughts and resulting frames from the critics’ discussion that would define how the book would be further refined to appropriately serve its purpose.”
The project built its writing pool from among members of the ENEDA who were selected for their writing proficiency and substantial entrepreneurship-teaching experience.
In his opening talk, SERDEF President Paterno Viloria recalled how SERDEF and UP ISSI pioneered in entrepreneurship education and training in the country, long before the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education recognized its importance and began reforms to integrate entrepreneurship into the formal educational curriculum.
Prof. Marilou Gatchalian, president of ENEDA and member of the SERDEF Research and Information Committee, conceptualized the project and is now managing it. Dr. Paz Diaz, SERDEF Trustee and Roosevelt Colleges Vice President for Academics, is the project consultant.
Dr. Diaz, who is also the project editor and head writer, said that Windows to Entrepreneurship is expected to be out by March next year.
