DOLE offers online entrepreneurship course to OFWs

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is offering an online entrepreneurship course to assist returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in setting up their own business.

Dubbed as the OFW Reintegration through Skills and Entrepreneurship (OFW RISE) program, the initiative was designed to provide OFW-participants access to web-based training on basic entrepreneurship and practical business coaching.

The program is also aimed at enabling them to develop their own business idea and implement this through livelihood assistance and other micro financing programs.

DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the agency recognizes “the importance of entrepreneurship orientations and trainings to stir entrepreneurial willingness among our OFW returnees.”

“We want to support their productive reintegration by helping them set up their business here and be with their families,” he noted.

He added that the “multi-stakeholder partnership provides a model for technical coordination among key actors, both from the private sector and the government, to work towards upskilling and empowerment of our OFW returnees.”

The four-hour entrepreneurship course will be in an “edutainment” format that can be accessed by OFWs through their gadgets while they are in quarantine facilities or when they return to their home base. This format combines entertainment, particularly video games, with educational content.

Under the program, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration shall provide partner agencies with information on returning OFWs as well as the location of quarantine centers to facilitate planning of processes, targeting of participants and scheduling of activities.