The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and the University of the Philippines (UP) are partnering for a five-year skills and training program for communities hosting transmission lines and facilities.
The parties signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) yesterday for the creation of the NGCP-UP Skills Camp, a P50 million project that will run until 2020.
The program will benefit 29 communities, or roughly P20, 000 per household in order to attain long-term increased employability and income of the beneficiaries.
“We wanted to build not just a partnership but also build skills for individuals. We have commissioned UP’s experts…to train unemployed members of the community,” NGCP president Henry Sy, Jr. said.
NGCP corporate initiative and advocacies division head Lida Mae Lopez said they will target seven barangays in four locations near four UP campuses with 250 households housing a thousand individuals.
“The results of which will be our take off point on how to expand it moving forward since the skills project will run until 2020,” Lopez said.
The partnership will include building relationships with the residents of the host communities, and conducting needs assessment analysis for livelihood programs.
UP president Alfredo Pascual said its 5, 000 faculty members will provide insights for the field training.
“We will assess where the employment needs are. Mr Sy identified the construction area such as agriculture, agri business, food processing, arts and crafts and other certain skills which involve entrepreneurship like management skills,” he said.
“NGCP believes that in order for the company to expand, we need to develop the communities around us,” Sy said.