Go Negosyo founder and PSAC (Private Sector Advisory Council) Jobs Lead Joey Concepcion wants to bring entrepreneurship to senior high school students as business ownership is an “alternative” to being an employee.

(From left) DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion (Photo courtesy of Go Negosyo)

He said during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing on Monday, Aug. 12, that his non-profit organization will continue its partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) under newly appointed Secretary Sonny Angara to push through with its programs—Youthpreneur, Boardroom Experience, and Mentoring the Mentors for mentoring senior high school teachers.

“So why senior high? Because an alternative to seeking jobs is to be an employer ‘no. So either be an employer or an employee, and what it takes to be an employer and an employee. So this will give them a (clearer) perspective because they’re talking to the founder of the business or the CEO of the business, and that is what we have programmed,” he shared.

Concepcion highlighted as well the need to “mentor the teachers” who are going to teach entrepreneurship or business.

“They have to know, I mean, teachers have not been entrepreneurs so they’re teaching the theoretical part. But what’s important sa mga entrepreneur is, not just the theoretical part but, you know, what we call gut feel. And that is learned through experience ‘no,” he added.

Citing that Go Negosyo has “hundreds of mentors” from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and the Philippine Franchise Association, Concepcion said that these mentors will share their successes and failures, as well as how they were “able to come back” after failing.

“So these programs are ready to go . . . So marami kaming (we have many) entrepreneurs that we will choose and deploy,” he furthered.

The Go Negosyo founder also expressed his excitement to be working with Angara, who just took over the helm from Vice President Sara Duterte.

“So si Sec. Sonny Angara, we’ve come a long way and we’ve done projects together and he is very active and aggressive. And we met and we said, I think we should continue the programs that we started ‘no because after about a week of starting it, we lost a secretary and fortunately now, Secretary Angara is on top of it,” Concepcion said, adding that Angara has attended many of Go Negosyo’s programs in the past years.

“So what we’re doing is not an experiment. We’ve been doing this for the past 19 years. So the DepEd, of course, fully supports what we will be doing. They know; they’ve seen it; they’ve been waiting for it, and we will definitely partner with Secretary Angara,” he stressed.