With the goal of honing the youth to be entrepreneurial and financially literate, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) headed by bankero Eugene Acevedo through its digital finance inclusion super app DiskarTech launches DiskarTechPreneur, a financial literacy bootcamp and business case competition open to senior high school students.
The DiskarTechPreneur aims to extend the application of DiskarTech’s ‘Aralin sa Madiskarteng Pananalapi Financial Education’ module, which is being implemented in schools by the Department of Education (DepEd).
“If we want to equip our students with skills and talents that will prepare them for the future, we need to expose them to real-life situations like a business simulation for them to understand the lessons, not only by theory but also in practice,” a bank official said.
One of the success stories is from Kaxandra Salonga, a 20-year-old student from the University of the Philippines and a DiskarTech partner entrepreneur. Kaxandra transformed her creative talent and passion for advocacies into a shirt printing enterprise.
“Through the help of my generous cousin, I was able to come up with a passion project that both served as my creative outlet and medium for forwarding advocacies I am passionate about,” said Salonga.
DiskarTechPreneur is one of the many initiatives of RCBC’s DiskarTech in forwarding financial literacy and education. Aside from lessons on managing finance, DiskarTechPreneur aims to expose young people to how it feels to manage a business and prepare them in achieving their own success story like Kaxandra.
After the elimination, the top 20 teams chosen from the elimination round will participate in different bootcamp sessions where they will receive professional mentoring from RCBC and DiskarTech managers, and some of the leading business leaders in the country.
After the bootcamp, each team will receive seed money as their initial capital. Competing teams will be given a month to execute their business plans through the use of online live selling platforms. Each team will also be given a schedule to utilize the DiskarTech TV for their businesses.
The top five teams will be chosen based on two general criteria, sales volume and value and quality of the business case. The winners of the competition will receive the following cash prizes: P50,000 for the grand winner with smartphones for each team member, P15,000 for the 2nd placer, P10,000 for the 3rd placer, and P5,000 each for the 4th and 5th placers.
