The Human Resources and Development Office organized an orientation on “Learning & Development” for 276 UPLB administrative staff on October 26, 2023 via Zoom and streamed on the official HRDO Facebook page.
The webinar was hosted by Administrative Officer IV Michelle S. Montiel-De Leon, and commenced with an opening remarks from the HRDO Director, Roderick C. Javar. In his address, he emphasized the significance of learning and development as one of the key HR systems, citing its reliance on the growth and development of employees to enable them to provide quality services to the public. He mentioned that the learning and development initiatives are aligned with the overall role, vision, and strategic direction of UPLB and the UP system. “Sama-sama po tayong matuto (learning) at sumulong (development),” he encouraged.
In an inspirational message delivered by the Vice-Chancellor for Administration, Rolando T. Bello, he pointed out the importance of L&D to the assessment of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) at the PRIME HRM level of the university. He said that this is also a way to level up the quality of service, skills, and competencies of each employee at the university.
Rosalyn Mabel M. Jimera, Administrative Officer IV, and the Position Classification and Staff Development (PCSD) section chief led the discussion on learning and development, in which she tackled the goals and benefits of L&D itself and the different types of learning and development initiatives that employees can consider, such as 1) formal classroom training and 2) on the job training (shadowing, knowledge sharing, and job rotation); and 3) self-development initiatives.
As part of the OC Memo No. 092 s. 2023, the UPLB HRDC, together with the HRDO introduced the “Administrative Staff Development Fund” (ASDF), which supports the continuous professional growth and development of the UPLB administrative staff. This was then discussed by Jimera, in which she divulged the coverage of the ASDF and who can avail of it to encourage administrative staff to take part in their career development journey.
Jimera also talked about the requirements for individual requests, the route of the request, and reporting details. Documentation reports are also a must when it comes to the conduct of training activities, and conditions for requesting funds for training are then highlighted in the webinar.
The Q&A was facilitated by Michelle S. Montiel-De Leon, and Mabel Jimera answered the participants’ queries as the resource speaker for the webinar.
The closing remarks were then given by Assistant to the Vice Chancellor Jennifer Marie S. Amparo herself, focusing on the advantages of investing time to participate in L&D initiatives as it is always emphasized that learning is a lifelong process and it would not be hindered by factors as unavailability to attend formal training because even informal training can serve as a training ground for sharing knowledge and skills. She also highlighted the importance of financially supporting the L&D initiatives of the UPLB employees; as their skills and capabilities level up, the effectiveness of all the initiatives would reflect on the services they provide to clients, similarly projecting the Tatak UPLB service to its stakeholders.
The “Learning & Development Orientation” webinar can be viewed on the UPLB HRDO official website.
Yra E. Bautista
