August 8, 2024/COTABATO CITY BARMM. In 2020, the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA Inc.) and the Technical Education and Skills Development of Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the integration of Values Transformation Training (VTT) to the Bangsamoro Scholarship Program (BSP) of the ministry.
This initiative is guided by the intention to assimilate values in the learning journey of the program beneficiaries and eventually apply those principles to their personal and career development.
BSP is a program that supports the goal of TESD- MBHTE on producing high- quality middle- level workforce in the Bangsamoro Region. Through BSP, various skills trainings are made available to Bangsamoro constituents as one relevant alternative to acquire education and pursue job/s.
These short- courses that come with a national certificate are cookery, carpentry, driving, automotive, computer system servicing, electrical installation and maintenance, others.
With the integration of VTT to the program, recipients learned about the significance of values for personality development and self- change that helps them become more responsible citizens, whether in their chosen field of specialization or as a regular member of the society.
VTT is a 3-day activity filled with fundamental lectures with workshops on faith-based values that guide the participants to understand and internalize their personal traits and weaknesses and be able to reflect for self- improvements. It reminds the participants that every act of a man is part of worship and therefore he/ she is expected to perform it on an excellent manner.
Completers of VTT demonstrate well of their appreciation of the training by having able to reflect on their acts, and were convinced for the need to improve themselves.
“There are so much learning from this training. We learned more about our values, our acts, and our faith, which will all make us be a better version of ourselves”, one participant remarked.
“The teachings on values reminded us of patience and faith. That everything, which happens in our lives is a test and we shall put our trust unto Allah and do our part”, another participant told.
Relationship to others is one important thing that the other VTT completer has gained from the training. According to him, the values taught in VTT enlightened them of ways to deal with other persons, even from other culture or faith, in a civil and compassionate manner.
As of July 2024, there are almost 5, 000 of BSP recipients who completed the VTT, based on the record of the BDA. In 2023, there were 11, 153 BSP completers who underwent VTT. While in 2022, there were 3, 394 and in year 2021, there 2, 860 who learned the VTT.
As official facilitator of the VTT, BDA has been persistently improving its strategies in managing the values training given the huge number of BSP beneficiaries who are participants to the VTT. These approaches are parallel to the institutional policies and considerations of the BDA as an organization. The agency has strengthen its pool of trainers and facilitators long been organized to perform such tasks on a wide- scale manner. Review and revision of modules were consistent to consider the context for the beneficiaries of the Bangsamoro Scholarship Program. (BDA Communication 2024)
