MAP launches mentoring program for MSMEs

mentoring

The Management Association of the Philippines, under the leadership of Ramon del Rosario, recently launched a mentoring program to help create new entrepreneurs and guide them as they struggle to emerge, survive and grow.

Known as the Educated Marginalized Entrepreneurs Resource Generation (EMERGE) program, the initiative seeks to help educated individuals from among the poorest of the poor take concrete steps towards realizing their entrepreneurial aspirations.

EMERGE aims mobilize a pool of volunteers from business, academy, civil society, and government, who are capable and willing to provide help in business planning, start-up and management.  The program also seeks to develop relevant courses in support to this program.

The program has three key components which are funding, mentoring, and values formation.

Among MAP’s partners in the implementation of the program is the University of the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries.

EMERGE will make available a pool of mentors who will help potential entrepreneurs in developing and implementing a business plan, securing a bank loan of at least P1 million and formulating the requirement management systems for the business to run, according to Melito Salazar, immediate past president of the MAP.

According to Prof. Alan Diaz of the UP ISSI, EMERGE’s goal is to assist the entrepreneurial poor who are graduates of technical and vocational training or with relevant  exposure,  retired government employees, families of uniformed services of Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines as well returning overseas Filipino workers who  would like to venture into business projects.

Salazar said that so far 34 MAP members have volunteered to be the initial mentors.

The initial batch of 20 mentees will be drawn from among graduates of the Farm Business Schools and other educational institutions.  They must show interest in setting up their own business and belong to a family whose income is less than the poverty threshold of P105,000.

The program involves one-on-one meetings between mentor and mentee; group meetings with a resource person; values formation sessions; appreciation events; feed back sessions; and field trips to observe actual business operations.

Photo: from www.coombesmith.co.nz/nzte