DAVAO CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Region 11 has produced 80 new graduates of its mentorship program.
These micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from all over the region have successfully passed the qualifications and challenges set by the Kapatid Mentor Me – Money and Market Encounter (KMME-MME) Online 2020 program, which is being implemented in partnership with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship – Go Negosyo. This batch graduated last 5 November, after acing the activities and requirements during the entire duration of the virtual mentoring, which ran from July until November this year.
So far, DTI-11 has already produced a total of 546 graduates since the program’s launching in 2016. For the fifth and sixth batches, which were conducted simultaneously, the graduates are composed of 19 MSMEs from Davao City, 14 from Davao del Sur, 21 from Davao del Norte, 13 from Davao Oriental, nine from Davao de Oro, and four from Davao Occidental.
The KMME Online, which kicked off last 28 July in the region, is aimed at helping MSMEs scale up their business through coaching and mentoring. Business owners and practitioners in different functional areas of entrepreneurship serve as the coaches and mentors among the mentees. The KMME has been implemented since 2016 as a 10-module mentorship program that optimizes weekly face-to-face interactions between the mentors and the mentees with the key goal of boosting the entrepreneurial capacity of the mentees through improved access to mentorship, money, and market. This year’s run, though, was unique as it was implemented virtually following the new normal.
Aside from a 10-module mentorship, coaching sessions were added in the program to assist the mentees during the drafting of their Business Improvement Plans (BIPs) and improve their materials and presentations skills. Coaching is also envisioned to further develop their capacities in accessing capital and market; thus, enabling them to pivot and prepare for the new normal.
The mentees presented their final BIP to an expanded panel of evaluators composed of representatives from banks, online market platforms, and other business support organizations.
After the program, the mentees enabled themselves to adopt innovative strategies and become sustainable in the “new normal.”
“With the COVID-19 upending lives and businesses all over the world, the KMME became more relevant and necessary albeit in a virtual or digitalized form. Thus, the KMME Online was developed as the practical delivery mechanism for the same mentorship modules used to propel MSMEs to survive and thrive in spite of the unprecedented setbacks that now confront businesses of all types and sizes,” DTI-11 Regional Director Maria Belenda Q. Ambi said.♦
Date of Release: 24 November 2020