By: Delaila Irma T. Calindas, Project Technical Staff II

A total of 16 aspiring youth entrepreneurs successfully completed the Apayao Provincial Leg of the YEP-Project MARITES 2024, held from July 23-26, 2024, at Apayao State College-Luna Campus. Notably, 14 of these participants are beneficiaries of the Free Higher Education Program under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA), with nine of them also receiving support through the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES).

Under the guidance of Ms. Marsha Pasong of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-CAR, who served as the Master Trainer, the participants were immersed in topics such as entrepreneurial mind-setting and business model development. The comprehensive training aimed to instill essential entrepreneurial skills that would enable these young individuals to transform their ideas into viable business ventures.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP!) is a focused program of DTI designed to empower the country’s youth by fostering productivity through entrepreneurship. Recognizing the alignment of goals, CHED-CAR partnered with DTI-CAR in 2022 to launch Project MARITES (Mobilizing Available Resources through Inclusive Training on Entrepreneurship of Student-Grantees), a project brainchild of CHED-CAR Regional Director Demetrio P. Anduyan Jr.

Project MARITES emerged from CHED-CAR’s monitoring efforts, which revealed that some UAQTEA beneficiaries had successfully used their stipends to start small businesses. By partnering with DTI’s YEP, the project aims to provide structured entrepreneurial training to further support these young entrepreneurs.

Since its inception, Project MARITES has benefited over 100 UAQTEA beneficiaries, equipping them with the skills and confidence to pursue entrepreneurship as a path to economic empowerment.