By Kathryn Jose, Daily Tribune
Launched in 2022, RCBC’s DiskarTechPreneur competition has been narrowed down to 20 finalists from 70 teams of senior high school students with ideas for small businesses ranging from selling fruit salad in a sushi roll to an online Filipino writing assistant service.
The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation plans to expand its startup financing program for senior high school students nationwide to further cultivate entrepreneurship among Filipinos.
Launched last year, RCBC’s DiskarTechPreneur competition has been narrowed down to 20 finalists from 70 teams of senior high school students with ideas for small businesses, ranging from fruit salad in a sushi roll to an online Filipino writing assistant.
For the next batches in the competition, RCBC chief technology officer Lito Villanueva said the company plans to accept entries from all the 18 regions of the country, beyond its pilot areas of Metro Manila and Region IV-A or Calabarzon.
Amazing outcomes
“We first want to test the project, but the outcomes have been amazing. The business proposals we’ve received are innovative and really address real-life problems,” Villanueva said Friday during the presentation of the competition’s finalists.
The winning team will receive P50,000 as capital and a total of six smartphones for the teacher-mentor and five students. As part of the elimination round, the finalists will be selling their products online for a month on the digital media platform Kumu to test their business ideas.
Finalists will be judged on their sales volume and quality of product or service.
RCBC helped create an entrepreneurship curriculum for the Department of Education. The student-finalists said DiskarTechPreneur has pushed them to take a closer look at the society and their skills.
Exchange ideas among the youth
“DiskarTechPreneur allows the youth to exchange ideas to solve the various problems in the country or help make other people’s lives easier, and it also encourages us to develop other skills for the benefit of our communities,” Alyssa Mae Bae from Luis Ferrer Jr. High School in General Trias, Cavite said.
Veteran business journalist and financial literacy advocate Salve Duplito, who will be one of the mentors and judges, said learning about entrepreneurship will also help the Filipino youth and families become resilient and self-reliant.
“In the Philippines, selling is looked down upon as a shameful activity. We should change this mindset. Creating a business addresses problems in society while multiplying wealth for families to make their lives and of the next generations better.”
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Kelvin Lee said Filipinos can accelerate the country’s progress through the youth as they are very curious and more open to innovations.
“The young ones look at the world differently. Every day, I devour various pieces of information, but I feel I still have to do a lot of catching up. I believe young people sometimes know more,” Lee said.
DiskarTechPreneur is inspired by RCBC’s e-wallet DiskarTech which offers digital payments, savings and microcredit.
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