UnionBank, through its Xcellerator Program, and CitySavings have donated to the ‘Help Educators Rise to Online Education for SY 2020-2021’ or HEROES 2021 project of Thames International School that seeks to build the capabilities of our public school teachers in conducting virtual classes.
A pioneer in online education since 2018, Thames—along with partners Edurescue (Philippines) and AKADASIA (Singapore)—will be sharing expertise on effective online teaching through HEROES 2021’s intensive nationwide training for over 800,000 Department of Education (DepEd) teachers.
With the shift to digital and contactless models, educational institutions need to propel the skills of educators to provide effective digital learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UnionBank will support the education drive, which aligns with its ‘PeopleTech’ initiative to build the skills and capabilities of the future.
CitySavings, meanwhile, continues to strengthen its partnership engagement with DepEd by supporting its Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) that aims to ensure continued progress in student learning in ‘new normal’ scenarios beyond the classroom.
Under HEROES 2021, DepEd teachers will be given access to learning programs on emerging technologies to help keep them abreast with constantly evolving virtual instruction methods and practices.
We thank our partners Thames, UnionBank, and CitySavings for the HEROES 2021 teacher training project. We all know that the use of printed modules for learning delivery is not sustainable in the long run given the costs and impact on the environment. Online learning is one of the solutions and now is the time to train our teachers. We are excited that since the launch, we already have more than 11,000 DepEd NCR teachers trained.
–Dir. Malcolm Garma, Regional Director, DepEd NCR
According to Joel Santos, president and co-founder of Thames International Business School, the biggest challenge to digital transformation in any organization is the change in mindset.
“We now have Gen Z learners, but education delivery has remained the same,” he said, highlighting the need to pivot to online education. “Online learning is like learning how to swim—we’re helping teachers how to float. But we need to fast-track everything.”
Santos called on other members of the private sector to join Thames, UnionBank, and CitySavings in ensuring that no school and no teacher will be left behind during these very challenging times.
