Tuesday, June 20, 2006

The S.H.I.P. - CIE's Six High Impact Programmes

The Centre for International Education or CIE is launching an ambitious programme to take the twin problem of poverty and functional illiteracy head on. It is launching its tightly integrated and focused programmes they fondly call: S.H.I.P.

S.H.I.P. stands for Six High Impact Programmes that will deliver the short- and long-term response to poverty and illiteracy.

Short-term Programmes

Addresses the problems of poverty and illiteracy at the most immediate level:

Entrepreneurial Tourism
Entrepreneurial Tourism focuses on benefits not only for tourists, but also for people in the communities they visit and for their respective natural, social and cultural environments.

With the Pinoy Backpackers’ Club as main partner and network, CIE spearheads the formulation of tourism agendas for localities anchored on their natural environment, history and folklore as an instrument for the preservation of culture. It provides the opportunity for home grown entrepreneurs to invest in suitable backpacker amenities such as bed and breakfast stops, souvenir shoplets, and other affordable but value-added to the tourist on a budget.

CIE formulates tourism agendas within the prevailing business milieu by harnessing indigenous talents, business products and ideas to maximize benefits to local communities. CIE seeks to spread the economic benefits to the poor addressing poverty by the creation of wealth.

English Language Programme (ELP)
ELP is an internationally benchmarked English as a Second Language programme designed by CIE. It uses the most effective techniques of developing and improving the skills and proficiency of English language learners that suit various proficiency levels of students.

The teaching-learning approach pervades students with personal and individual attention throughout the programme and access to the language.

ELP adapts recognized curricula, including the NCC English Language Framework (ELF) which is awarded by NCC Education and the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board (LCCIEB), and the Young Learners of English (YLE) under the Cambridge English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

Using these frameworks, students receive adequate preparation to study or begin a career or seek employment overseas. They acquire the ability to speak and write using the internationally accepted standard of the English Language.

NGOs, POs, Cooperatives and individual partners can set up an English Language Centre to make the internationally benchmarked ELP accessible to underserved communities in the country.

Technical Skills Training (TeST)
The programme seeks to provides skills which students need to work in Information Technology fields and data communication. It focuses on the development of competence for employment or starting a business enterprise in the community.

The programme adapts the best practices and recent trends in content delivery where self-paced, student-centered learning and instructor-led delivery are used to cater to the needs of both students and teachers.

The course introduces students to IT and data communications, and develops necessary skills to enter this field. This hands-on, internet-based and laboratory-oriented programme will help prepare the students for certification by CompTIA, the leading association representing the international technology community that advances industry growth through standards, professional competence, education and business solutions.

CIE trains teachers and institutions on content, monitoring students’ progress and best instructional practices in delivering the programme to their local communities at least cost.

Long-term Programmes

These programmes seek to eradicate the root causes of poverty and illiteracy at the more strategic level.

The Pearl Principle Formation School System
The first 6 years in a child’s life, the early childhood stage, is the most crucial because it is within this period that the foundation of one’s PERSONHOOD is laid out. The PPFS is a parallel school system that offers pre-school education with a strong bias on Reading and Comprehension, Writing, Mathematics and English as a Second Language.

The PPFS System uses a curriculum validated by a system-wide Quality Assurance, known as Global Examinations and Qualifications (GEQ). Designed by curriculum experts from leading private schools, less privileged students are assured of better quality education. It is administered using a curriculum that is consistent with quality standards, and supported by first-rate teacher training offered at a very affordable cost.

TEACH
Teacher Enrichment and Competence Enhancement (TEACH) is designed to provide various courses to prepare both classroom teachers and school administrators for the drive for massive literacy for the changing state of affairs in the teaching world.

TEACH sets performance standards for the skills, knowledge, attitude and understanding that are required in order to be competent, confident and productive in a teaching role.

TEACH shall be offered at the CIE campus on scholarships and matching grants.

Educational Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Fund (ESTFAF)
The Educational Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Fund is a socialized approach to tuition fee administration. The fund shall be used to provide equal opportunity for the well-to-do and the less privileged in the access of international quality education which CIE offers.

CIE, as the only International Associate Partner of the University of Cambridge, UK in the Philippines, accredited Cambridge ESOL and NCC Education UK partner, among others, seeks to level the playing field for students who are intellectually endowed. Students from well-to-do families will pay full tuition fees while those from the middle-income families shall be subsidized according to their financial capability.

CIE believes that quality education and tuition administration should be rationalized that is why ESTFAF was created.

posted by Centre for International Education @ 2:59 AM 0 comments

Social Entrepreneurship and Development Management: Creating A Better Future for the Next Generation of Filipinos

You can END poverty and illiteracy.

The Current Situation:

In the Philippines, at least 50 million people consider themselves poor. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 02, 2006)

Seven in ten Filipinos (70%) say their personal circumstances worsened over the last year, while 83% are of the opinion that the national quality of life of most Filipinos and their families, is worse now than it was a year ago. (Pulse Asia, March 2006).

On the other hand, the state of Philippine education is bleak. 9.2 million out of 57.6 million Filipinos aged 10 to 64 years cannot read, write, subtract and add, or understand simple instructions. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 05, 2006).

Our Answer: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Social entrepreneurs are Generative Leaders who combine business savvy with social mission. They are P.E.A.R.L.S.: Passionate, Ethical, Action-oriented, Results-focused, Leaders of Society.

They lead, inspire, create a vision and engage people to generate something from within themselves, thereby, fundamentally changing communities. Social entrepreneurs are catalysts of change.

Social entrepreneurs, Bill Drayton says, “are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”

The CIE S.H.I.P.

In line with its vision to become a veritable institution who champions the upliftment of the quality of human life, CIE takes up as its social mission the challenge of confronting our country’s problem of illiteracy and poverty. CIE espouses the Pearl Principle advocating the ideology of ‘initiating change from within and within one’s sphere of influence’ in order to ‘transform a state of hopelessness into a state of optimism where opportunities are created as in the creation of a pearl.’ CIE has chosen social engagement and the Pearl Principle as the anchor of its social entrepreneurship programs.

CIE addresses the short and long-term goals of eradicating poverty and functional illiteracy through its Six High Impact Programs (SHIP).

CIE captains the SHIP in spearheading the creation of Social Enterprises to address problems in education and poverty. The SHIP is an acronym for Six High Impact Programmes of CIE putting into action tenets of the Pearl Principle. These are viable and sustainable development programs that can be undertaken by NGOs, POs, cooperatives and like-minded individuals including CIE students who dare to engage in this mission as partners.

CIE, believing that everyone is an active learner who creates meaning not only through theory but more importantly through practice, has in fact required its own students to be advocates of the PEARL Principle. Graduating classes in high school and college engage in projects that actually help alleviate the life of a disadvantaged family. They teach families life-skills to earn, manage and sustain themselves to truly improve their quality of life.

CIE S.H.I.P. shall turn adversities into opportunities by creating Social Enterprises which are undertaken not as acts of charity but as processes of reciprocity so that it may ultimately create an intrinsic value to the community that CIE serves.

The Business Model: Entrepreneurial Development Management

Traditional sources of funding are becoming scarce. Donor-fatigue syndrome is mounting because of global recession and economic crisis.

The Entrepreneurial Development Management (EDM) model dares to help eradicate poverty and illiteracy by creating social enterprises which are undertaken NOT as acts of charity but as processes of reciprocity, ultimately creating an intrinsic value to the community it serves. The EDM business model is self-generating because it has a mechanism for internal resource generation.

The ultimate goal is for The SHIPs to attain self-sufficiency while increasing social impact. This is achieved by massively promoting EDM, by increasing partnerships and operating in as many areas as possible.

The main requirement is PASSION for social engagement to make a difference in the pursuit of nation-building.

NO LICENSE FEE is required.

The Challenge

How many of us will dare find the gift within ourselves and actually turn it into something positive? How many of us can find and honour our strength and flexibility with the inner power to create and succeed rather than break apart?

As CIE endeavors to build a better future for the Philippines through quality education, The School for Leaders enjoins Filipinos to engage with its mission - for love of country.

ENGAGE with the Pearl Principle Advocacy.

posted by Centre for International Education @ 2:49 AM 2 comments