Opportunity. It was the accidental theme of Connected Women’s last Community Forum, which was held in collaboration with Facebook’s She Means Business. The event on October 20 was the latest in a series of talks discussing the current digital economy and the crucial role women played in it.

Connected Women, together with Facebook’s She Means Business, is making this transition easier. On November 12, the collaboration recently concluded a four-month program that allowed its graduates to receive a Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate. It was hosted on the Coursera platform and aimed to give participants hands-on, job-relevant skills through project-based learning. The six courses covered social media essentials, from general marketing skills and applied social media tools to soft skills. 

Wearing multiple hats

The course was hardly a walk in the park. During the graduation ceremony, participants confessed how they powered through multiple jobs, family life, and even internal personal issues. 

Rhodora Cruz, for example, has two children, aged five and two. She revealed that she would stay up at night to watch the lessons and only after she finished her homemaking responsibilities. The usual challenge of video-based setups, such as technical glitches added to the pressure.

“I took it slowly and I thought I was on time because I was following the Coursera timeline,” Cruz recalled. “But then I got a message saying that I was behind by two courses.” During one of the exams, she was also labeled a no-show because she was in the wrong time zone. “I had to work really hard to retake the exam because it was my last chance.”

Claverna Gapud had a similar experience. Already a project engineer and entrepreneur by day, she had to find clever ways to manage her time, such as blocking Monday to Thursday for the program. She was grateful for the asynchronous setup that gave room for flexibility. 

“My camera also kept turning on and off. There is a lot of pressure when you’re taking the exam and the proctor is watching you. You’re not allowed to turn off your camera.” To remedy this, Gapud prepared two laptops in case she encountered unexpected technical difficulties. 

Shannon Toh, the APAC Business Education Training Partner of Facebook’s Blueprint commended the graduates for their determination. “It is an amazing feat that requires consistency and commitment and you have a lot to be proud of,” she said.  

Bridging opportunities

Before the pre-pandemic, Connected Women has constantly come up with ways and partnerships to tip the scale for women when it comes to access and opportunities. The solution: to provide the tools and training necessary to seize and thrive in the web-based job landscape. 

“Meta advances Connected Women’s advocacy by making tools and trainings more accessible. This empowers more women, even stay-at-home moms or budding Filipina entrepreneurs with modern-day technical skills that are currently in demand,” said Maan De Los Reyes, Social and Performance Head of Ogilvy Philippines. “This batch of program scholars are fortunate to have gone through a certification program because not everybody in the industry is offered the same opportunity. I hope they continue to hone their craft by applying Social Media Marketing to their own businesses or grabbing employment opportunities here and abroad.”

“What Connected Women and Meta did was to break barriers for Filipino women. What you got is not only a certificate but a badge that opens doors to more career tracks and employment opportunities here and abroad.” Her final advice: Break your own barriers and never stop learning.

Strong skills

But the benefit of the Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate goes beyond technical training. Beyond opportunity, confidence became the consensus among the participants. The four-month-long training has made them believe that they have a place in the digital economy. 

Gapud even revealed that she turned down a job prospect. “I wanted to focus on the course because, in the end, I wanted to be confident with my skills.” 

Marianick Villegas agreed. Before the program, she settled on running Facebook communities, but she eventually learned to trust her knowledge and instincts. “I can now accept bigger responsibilities and develop social media strategies.” Villegas also won a tablet for her video essay on how the course changed her life. 

Villegas admitted that earning the certificate was difficult for her on a personal level. She found the work easy at the start, soon after the course began, she found a full-time and a part-time job and became overwhelmed. 

“I was not in a good place mentally and that hindered me from finishing the course on time,” she confessed. “I had a hard time. I had self-doubt and I was thinking negative things.” Apart from the asynchronous modules, however, Connected Women organized Kumustahan conferences to check up on the participants’ progress. During one of the breakout sessions, Villegas decided to open up about her internal struggles.

“Once I heard the advice, I felt that someone was on my side and understood what I was going through,” Villegas shared. “It gave me the strength that I needed to finish the course.”

Connected Women and Facebook’s She Means Business partnership creates a more equitable world for women. However, it also strengthens something that women are known to be good at ­– and not just multitasking. It provides a platform for conversation, community, and support