Employers in the Philippines innovate with eCampus digital learning

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) regarded the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to transition to digital learning. The Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) Programme at the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) teamed with ECOP to build their new eCampus platform with support from the Walt Disney Company.

News | Manila, Philippines | 31 August 2022
With funding from the Walt Disney Company, the ITCILO helped ECOP create and launch their new eCampus platform.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected workers, employers and enterprises. The lockdown in the Philippines restricted lives to the internet and posed numerous challenges. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) saw it as a chance to diversify and innovate its member services.

At the onset of the pandemic, ECOP partnered with the Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) Programme at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO).

The ACT/EMP Programme at the ITCILO helped ECOP in creating and launching their new eCampus platform with financial support from the Walt Disney Company.

The eCampus is a learning management system (LMS) platform that enables ECOP to provide courses and programmes online, face-to-face or in a blended format. The platform provides courses on themes including industrial relations, human resource management, occupational safety and health, entrepreneurship, management development and responsible business conduct.

About 30 ECOP members will use the eCampus to get face-to-face training on the Essentials of Occupational Safety and Health and Responsible Business Conduct from 30 August to 1 September 2022. Mr Sandro Pettineo and Ms Rachida Zingara of the ACT/EMP Programme at the ITCILO will observe and monitor in person.

“The eCampus Platform sounds like rocket science, but digital is the only way forward for every facet of life. Thank you for bringing ECOP to a new frontier,” said Mr Edgardo Lacson, Chairperson of the ECOP Board of Governors.

ECOP has always worked to promote the interests of employers in all labour, social, and employment issues at the national, regional, and international levels. It does this by being active and being a voice for employers. Since it was launched, the ECOP eCampus has grown to offer more than 60 courses. On average, 20 to 30 people sign up for each course, and the number of training services offered each week has doubled.

The eCampus complements online and face-to-face training programmes and allows participants to learn anywhere and anytime. ECOP members get online access to self-paced learning, questionnaires, and certifications, and can learn at their own pace.

"The pandemic exposed to the fullest extent the other services an employers’ organization could offer. The eCampus platform has given us a competitive advantage by allowing us to become one of the few, if not the only, business organization in the Philippines to also be a training institution that makes use of an e-learning platform,” said Mr Jose Roland Moya, ECOP Director-General.

The messaging system is one of the most popular eCampus services. Many use it to discuss the lessons, exchange company best practises, pose questions to the instructors, and seek their guidance.

But there is more. The eCampus has also helped the ECOP Training and Development Department roll out training services by serving as a repository of training materials (videos, articles, PowerPoint presentations, and other relevant learning content), allowing the automation of generating training certificates, enabling the control of access to recorded videos and sessions, evaluating participants, and tracking students' activities.

At the height of the pandemic, ECOP was able to keep its members involved and its finances stable by using the services of the training department to create new revenue streams.

The experience of ECOP is not the only one that shows the impact and change that training services have on the world of work. The ACT/EMP Programme at the ITCILO is helping other employers' organizations around the world launch their training services online through online platforms.

This is an example of how digital learning can be useful in the workplace. Training services hosted on platforms like the eCampus help employers everywhere modernize and improve engagement. The ACT/EMP Programme at the ITCILO is committed to supporting digital learning for the world of work and providing e-learning and knowledge management solutions to global partners.