THE ALDERSGATE College Inc. in Nueva Vizcaya signed an agreement with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to advance programs for members of ethnic groups.

The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the provision of research, extension and development services to IPs.

NCIP Region 4-B Director Mary Grace Pascua said that the organization launched a non-formal education program with the goal of offering seminars, trainings and other interventions for IP adolescents and women, families and communities through its Indigenous Peoples Rights Act Academy.

The project aims to enhance the skill sets of IP communities in a variety of areas, including leadership and governance, business development, financial literacy, project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

“Team AC Inc. is expected to provide technical experts from the relevant formal academic programs to ensure the long-term purposive implementation of the IPRA Academy interventions through strategic term extension programs with training services, mentoring and coaching sessions, among others, via online mode,” Pascua said.

“These IP communities as beneficiaries should be able to work well together as much as possible in harnessing the windfall of resources for long-term impact, instead of being the cause of competition and conflicts over mining community benefits,” she added.