MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Australian Embassy in the Philippines has officially announced one of two new partnerships with the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) this year: Eskwelabs, an online data upskilling school in the Philippines.
Eskwelabs’ COVID-19 recovery efforts via its proposed “Democratizing the Future of Work through Data Upskilling” initiative is one of the inclusive business initiatives chosen by the BPP for its potential to create lasting social impact.
Eskwelabs will be launching a low-cost mobile-based data literacy upskilling experience (for freelance-specific data analytics skills), which will be marketed through partner FHMoms, an online community of female freelancers in the Philippines. The partnership—between Eskwelabs and FHMoms, and the Australian government—aims to reach 10,000 learners with this free data literacy course within 2 years.
This data upskilling initiative proposed will inspire, equip, and connect Filipino freelance workers—who have been impacted by COVID-19—to high-value digital work opportunities that go beyond typical administrative tasks, thereby increasing their employability and income potential using data skills.
Women have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and will be disproportionately affected by digital transformation, as they are under-represented in STEM-related professions. Instead of allowing digital disruptions to leave vulnerable groups behind, targeted upskilling and reskilling present a clear way to flip the odds and drastically speed up the pace of progress on diversity—a strategy that will be good for workers and crucial for thriving societies.
“Eskwelabs’ mission is to democratize opportunities in the future of work. We envision that future to be data-driven and to include women, not as just consumers of digital products and data points, but also as creators and collaborators themselves. We are excited about the work with value-aligned partners like the Australian government who is providing catalytic funding for this partnership to scale, as well as the FHMom’s community, who we collaborated with since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Angela Chen, Eskwelabs Co-Founder and CEO.
MK Bertulfo, FHMoms Founder and CEO, also shares, “I am grateful for this partnership with Eskwelabs. They’ve been a long-term training partner of the FHMoms community, and this new partnership with them only deepens the great relationship we’ve cultivated over the past year. I am looking forward to seeing FHMoms community members become more data savvy and feel equipped to navigate this post-COVID world where data is everywhere, abundant, and a necessary skill to master in the future of work. This means a lot for the women whom I value and believe in so much.”
