The Leadership, Financial Literacy and Social Entrepreneurship (LSE) Program is an empowerment program targeting Overseas Filipinos Workers (OFWs) in the areas of Leadership, Financial Literacy and Social Entrepreneurship. The program is under the Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Government. A consortium runs the program composed of OFSPES, SEDPI, UGAT Foundation, and Wimler Foundation among others. Philippine embassies and consulates abroad, Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Council of Flipinos Overseas and Overseas Worker Welfare Administration support the program.
Vision
Filipino migrants and their families united towards supporting each other in becoming empowered and highly respected members of society, consciously contributing to nation building
Objectives
The LSE aims to provide Overseas Filipinos:
- Leadership skills training that empowers each OFW to view himself/herself as an agent of change and transformation
- Financial education including both financial concepts and skills that they can use to improve their economic security particularly for their retirement and/or reintegration in the Philippines
- Entrepreneurship skills, focused on social entrepreneurship, so that OFWs can explore their potentials for changing their livelihood options, either in the host country or back in the Philippines, instead relying solely on paid employment
Program Characteristics and Features
The LSE program has the following innovative features:
- It is a collaborative effort of government, academia, private sector and civil society groups to help in the empowerment of migrant Filipinos, and indirectly, their families
- It combines essential leadership skills, financial literacy and social entrepreneurship of OFWs to broaden their views, dreams and visions and empower them to pursue these
- By encouraging OFWs to become entrepreneurs, especially social entrepreneurs, they will be addressing various social problems either in the host countries or in the Philippines should they plan to return , transforming them into agents of social change
- The program challenges the trainees to give back of pay forward their training to other OFWs, thus enabling them to widen and expand the program’s outreach and sustain the program’s goals and objectives over the long term
- An integral part of the program is ongoing mentoring and coaching throughout the course. This component of the program involves guidance of the trainees, which from experience, has proved critical for the success in transforming the trainees’ mindset, knowledge, attitude and skills