BUTUAN CITY -- DOST Caraga’s eKnowvation or the DOST-Coursera Learning Program won the CSC Pagasa Award during the 2022 Honor Awards Program (HAP) of the Civil Service Commission Caraga held at the Caraga State University.

eKnowvation is the country's first and largest reskilling and upskilling program using the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform, Coursera. The reskilling and upskilling program of DOST Caraga started in April 2020 when Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative was launched by Coursera. It is an outreach initiative that mainly focused on developing the technical skills of the workers who have lost their jobs and those who wanted to grow and learn new things for better opportunities.

In his acceptance speech during the awarding ceremony, DOST Caraga Regional Director Noel M. Ajoc said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the eKnowvation Team became more motivated to focus on the development of people’s capabilities using new technology. RD Ajoc also added that rather than viewing the pandemic's repeated lockdowns as a problem that could hinder development plans, the team saw them as an opportunity to realize a new idea.

Through this program, 75,000 Scholarship slots were given throughout the Philippines for free covering 17 regions and 82 provinces. In addition, grantees spent 1.3 million learning hours on the Coursera platform where they completed 146,837 courses and guided projects in a short time.

Coursera provides up to 12 weeks of learning sessions with one to two hours of video lectures a week with the world’s leading universities and industry educators. To complete the courses, users need to participate in quizzes and weekly exercises. There are also peer-graded and reviewed assignments and final projects that needed to be accomplished.

CSC’s Honor Awards Program (HAP) is the highest recognition given by the government to deserving government officials and employees who have excelled and shown great dedication and commitment to public service. One of the categories is the Pagasa Award given to an individual or group for outstanding contributions that directly benefit more than one government department. (DOST Caraga/PIA Caraga)