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Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) Project Tuesday, 04 May 2010 09:35 Page 1 of 3
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A project under the Working Youth Center (WYC) Program with the aim of putting the youth once again at the center of development. The YES Project envisions the young college and technicalvocational graduating students, college graduates or would-be members of the labor force as productive, resourceful and self-reliant entrepreneurs. Aside from being an essential WYC enabler to reinvigorate the hopes and dreams of would-be entrants to the labor force, the YESis a component or support program to the DOLE Kabuhayan Program.

WYC-YES Developmental Objectives To mobilize the college and technical-vocational graduates to become young entrepreneurs thereby generating income and jobs in the countryside; To meet the employment needs of young graduates through a comprehensive and coherent package of entrepreneurship-related services that will contribute to uplifting their living conditions; To help raise the quality of life of households and increase household economic worth by unleashing youth entrepreneurship potentials in innovative community-based business ventures ; and To intensify enterprise development through collaboration and partnership between the DOLE and the educational institutions in preparing college and technical-vocational graduating students and graduates for business undertakings.

Program Status (January to September 2010)

Program Monitoring and Technical Supervision

A total of ,114 youths received funding support for 25 livelihood/entrepreneurship undertakings from the 33 DOLE accredited co-partners (ACPs) for the YES project

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WYC-YES Project Components 1. Partnership and Consensus Building To get their consensus in cooperating with the YES Project, the DOLE Regional Offices (ROs) will meet with: the local government units (LGUs) through their public employment service offices (PESOs) the target partner educational institutions (EI), such as the state colleges and universities (SUCs), private educational institutions (PEIs), technical vocational institutions (TechVocs) private individuals/property owners and other possible partners

A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) may be executed to signal the forging of partnerships, which will include the commitment of cooperation, the time of key personnel to be deployed or assigned to the project, and the commitment of other resource counterparts. The partners shall state in the MOA that the educational institution (EI) shall serve as the accredited co-partner or conduit and shall guide their graduating students or graduates in preparing the business plan or project proposal, before recommending it to DOLE for approval. The EI shall also supervise and monitor their students or graduates YES project implementation.

Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) Project Tuesday, 04 May 2010 09:35 Page 2 of 3
2. Identification and Organization of YES Buddies The EI shall facilitate the identification, screening and organization of their graduating students or graduates of college courses, including those in ladderized programs, into YES groups The target YES beneficiaries are, preferably but not exclusively, those of agriculture, fishery and entrepreneurship courses The EI, in consultation with the DOLE Regional Office, shall consider the factors of same locality and proximity to the project area, among others, in organizing the target beneficiaries. Each YES group shall have three (3) to five (5) members or YES Buddies which, when organized, shall serve as the YES link or conduit and job provider to the members of the working youth organizations and the rest of the youth seeking employment at the grass root or community level.

The YES buddies are essential as they facilitate the delivery of services to the other youth, whether unemployed or underemployed. 3. Values and Leadership Formation and Social Preparation Values and Leadership Formation and Social Preparation aim to enhance the work and business values and to develop the leadership potentials of the YES buddies. As would-be entrepreneurs, they should be endowed with the values of hard work, patience, savings, self-reliance, self-discipline, respect for the rights of others, efficient use of meager resources and productivity. Their leadership potentials must be developed to enable them to effectively handle and manage the business undertaking and the other young people who would be working for and with them.

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The DOLE RO and the EI should provide the YES buddies with guidance and relevant training courses to equip them with knowledge and skills on the following: Basic management; Preparation of business plans; Enterprise development and management; Market strategies; Basic bookkeeping and accounting; and Advocacy and social mobilization.

The major output of this phase is a business plan which the YES buddies shall prepare under the guidance and supervision of the EI. The business plan shall indicate, among others, the land, coastal area or other property where the YES project will be situated. The EI shall, as much as possible, assist them in looking for markets and shall link them to big companies or contractors in the marketing of the youths prod ucts or services. The DOLE RO and the EI shall tap the assistance of other agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Science and Technology, as well as experts or specialists in technology enhancement, packaging and marketing.

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4. Capability Building and Capital Assistance The funding for this component can be initially sourced from the DOLE Kabuhayan Program funds lodged at the

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DOLE Regional Offices. Capital assistance should be provided to deserving YES buddies. Deserving YES buddies are those whose business plan has passed the evaluation criteria of the EI and the DOLE RO. The seed capital for the YES business undertaking can be initially sourced from other funds intended for the rationalized DOLE livelihood program, which also covers young workers. The LGU shall identify and facilitate the provision of land or coastal area or structure as project site. As much as possible, idle public land or property shall be the priority site of the project. A private property may be tapped by the partners if no idle site or government property is available. The LGU having jurisdiction over the identified YES business project site shall assist in preparing the terms of reference for the use of the public or private property. WYC-YES Implementation Scheme The DOLE Regional Offices, in collaboration with the partners EI, LGU or private individual, shall directly implement the YES in their respective areas of jurisdiction. The partnership shall also be the YES Project Implementation Team that will ensure that project implementation is in accordance with government rules and regulations. The YES process cycle may be used as guide. The EI shall be the conduit to receive from DOLE the funding and capital assistance and shall manage the YES project of its graduating students or graduates. The EI shall provide guidance and counseling, if not courses, on entrepreneurship to its graduating students who are YES Buddies. In the engagement of their production or service workers for the business enterprise, the YES Buddies shall, as much as possible, prioritize the underemployed and unemployed members of DOLE-registered working youth organizations. WYC-YES Project Monitoring The Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC) and the DOLE RO shall be responsible for the overall management, hence, the monitoring of the implementation of the WYC-YES. To facilitate the monitoring, the BWSC shall develop and distribute to the DOLE RO the monitoring forms which shall collect or record information on the number of beneficiaries serviced or assisted, the service/intervention provided and the status of project implementation. As program manager, the BWSC shall: Collect, consolidate and analyze the progress reports from the DOLE ROs. Provide technical assistance to DOLE ROs pertinent to problems, issues and concerns arising from their respective YES implementation Provide recommendations for more efficient and effective YES implementation Facilitate the conduct of periodic monitoring and evaluation of the program implementation. These indicators, among others, shall be used in monitoring: (1) Number, variety and quality of employment or job opportunities available to the youth; and (2) Number of young people engaged in productive and profitable entrepreneurial ventures. Conduct an impact evaluation of the WYC-YES after three years of operation.

For more information, please contact or go to the nearest DOLE Regional Office in your area.