Information officer, Jon Ian Belo, shares their effort to ensure the documentation of ATI Region XII activities and build up content for their website by creating a mechanism that facilitates data gathering. (photo by Daniel Nilo)
DILIMAN, Quezon City—Milestones in enhancing access to knowledge products and services marked the success of the 3rd Knowledge Management Updates and Collaborative Learning Activity of the Information Services (IS) group of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI).
These milestones include various partnerships formed and increased number of clients reached through IS programs and projects on e-Extension, technology-based knowledge-sharing, corporate communication, Techno Gabay extension, among others.
In a sharing of best practices among the regional training centers (RTCs), IS groups from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions I, II, MiMaRoPa, V, and XI showcased their strategies and 2018 accomplishments in the implementation of the school-on-the-air (SOA) program.
In CAR, IS chief Maximino Aromin talked about how maximizing partnerships with the local Department of Education office and the municipal social welfare and development office helped in promoting SOA among students and beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
“We’ve been implementing SOA since 2014 and we’ve been going around the region, doing one SOA activity per province starting with Benguet. In all these offerings, we weren’t able to meet the target number of graduates, which is 500. This 2018, we did it in Abra in partnership with other agencies and, for the first time, we were able to get around 1,200 enrollees and 985 graduates. We consider this a milestone in our SOA implementation,” he shared.
Meanwhile, IS teams in regions IX and XIII presented their strategies in implementing e-Learning for Agriculture and Fisheries. Both teams shared the advantage of forging partnerships with universities and colleges in increasing the number of their enrollees, particularly for RTC IX who reached 2, 552 enrollees in 2018 from 581 in 2017.
Other initiatives that were presented were on the Techno Gabay Program, advocating agriculture among Filipino youth, media relations, and development and dissemination of knowledge products.
These best practices were showcased through poster presentations from the different RTCs. Special awards were given to four of these presentations which came from RTC III (KALAYAAN: Kaunlaran para sa Laylayan ng Lipunan), RTC IV-A (Agriculturally Awesome: A Regional Farm Tourism Guide), and RTC VIII (3As: Appreciating Agriculture thru Arts and ROARS: Rice and Organic Agriculture Awareness Reach Schools).
Through the IS Achievers’ Awards, the RTCs were also recognized for their hard work in updating their websites, sustaining their social media presence, implementing the Rice Crop Manager, among others. IS division chief Antonieta Arceo led the awarding ceremony.
Lectures on the Freedom of Information program in the Philippines and corporate branding were also part of the gathering. Team development activities were also held to strengthen workplace relations and group communication among all the IS staff.
Around 90 IS chiefs and staff from the ATI’s central office and RTCs took part in this yearend event which was composed of two parts. The lecture and sharing sessions were held on December 3-4, 2018 at the ATI Rural Development and Education Center in Quezon City while the team development activities took place December 5-6, 2018 at RoheiM Farm in Pangasinan.