The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the schooling of more than 1.6 billion students around the world. Schools remain closed and the youth in more than 33 countries are mandated to stay at home. Almost all learning activities involving the youth have shifted online.
In this light, the ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme (AYVP) Secretariat at the University of the Philippines (UP), through the Ugnayan ng Pahinungód / Oblation Corps, the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia) through the University Community Transformation Centre (UCTC), and the ASEAN University Network University Social Responsibility & Sustainability (AUN USR&S), in partnership with the ASEAN Secretariat and Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia, have decided to pursue online trainings in hosting the E-AYVP Philippines 2021 from August 30 to September 17. This year, AYVP features ASEAN-focused webinars and masterclasses that aim to develop youth volunteers to become future leaders of ASEAN.
With the theme of “Strengthening the ASEAN Education Delivery Systems in Challenging Times”, this three-week programme will involve 100 or more youth, ages 18-30 and selected from ASEAN member countries plus three more: China, Japan, and Korea. The volunteers will be trained in skills related to addressing complex challenges faced by the education sector during the pandemic. E-AYVP Philippines 2021 likewise focuses on volunteerism as the youth’s means of engaging their own communities.
The AYVP, now in its ninth year of implementation, features over seven ASEAN-focused online webinars, six project management workshops and 22 masterclasses. Previous programmes were conducted physically in Malaysia (2013 & 2014, 2018 & 2019), Cambodia (2015), the Philippines (2016), and Indonesia (2017) and Malaysia.
E-AYVP Philippines 2021 will support innovative education-based community engagement in providing education services and empowering local communities, by working with government agencies, non-governmental agencies, private companies, social enterprises, and other organizations in the surrounding area. Expert resource persons include representatives from government and international organizations, faculty, and university officials. Topics include: best practices and lessons in addressing gender inequalities; empowering youth on the application of ICTs; enhancing social integration; and, many others related to promoting understanding and awareness of ASEAN identity and ‘unity in diversity’ among the youth.
This year’s e-AYVP Philippines will be using Zoom as the video conferencing application, and the University of the Philippines Open University’s MoDEL (https://model.upou.edu.ph/) Learning Management System (LMS) as the conference platform. Through the platform, the participants will have access to: e-AYVP Philippines 2021 announcements; information about the sessions; assignment and related readings, if any; evaluation forms for every session; copies of the session recordings; and, forums where they can interact with other participants outside of the Zoom session. Creating an account in the platform will also enable them to receive email reminders and other announcements.
For more information, visit the AYVP website. To register, visit the E-AYVP Online Registration website.