Ralph Layco, the 2019 Asia’s most outstanding young marketeer, has organized New Bold University—a pop-up campus that empowers Filipinos to pursue the jobs they desire despite the limited employment opportunities in the country.
NBU is a six-day transformational learning that Layco spearheaded on July 1 to 6 at Ground Up co-working spaces in Parañaque City. It sought to help professionals, artists, freelancers and aspiring entrepreneurs transform their passions and big ideas into a business and life they want to live.
It is anchored on the German type of education where modules are real-life work scenarios instead of theories. In German education, only six months are allotted inside universities and the rest of college life on internship.
In the Philippines, Layco envisions changing the typical four-year college bubble into a one-week crash course every year.
“Education is a lifelong pursuit. Why should it end in college? We go back to school one week every year and practice what we’ve learned the entire year,” he says.
“The current educational system doesn’t work anymore. We have abundance of information, from a quick Google search to a Youtube series that teaches coding. We don’ t need to feed people what to learn, we need to make them intellectual curiosity. That will empower them to learn more on their own,” says Layco, the 30-year-old founder of NBU.
Layco who grew up in General Santos City graduated from the University of the Philippines-Visayas with Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Marketing and Communications. As an entrepreneur, he established Macho Mucho Salon for Men and Crown & Glory in General Santos.
Aside from being an entrepreneur, Layco is a communications expert, a social media strategist and a motivational speaker.
He says that in the age of AI, robotics and exponential technology, the educational system should prepare students for jobs that have never existed before. “Worse, there will be less available jobs when they graduate. If we want to prepare for the future, we need to start with education,” says Layco.
“If you look into Google, the look of the classrooms is same with what we have now. That’s scary. It means we’re not adapting fast. That educational system is a factory-model education, but we can’t push for individuality if we teach people all the same,” he says.
Asked on how his version of school works, Layco says: “Instead of being stuck in four years of education, why not a week every year. Learning never stops, why should school? Students get to re-enro.l as new classes will be made available every year depending on relevant skills and trends,” he says.
“On day one, before we encouraged anyone to a career they like, we required to help them go inward first. We collated sessions and tools that revealed their strengths, weaknesses and personality. We made them secure about what they’re good at, and equally as important, what their weaknesses are because this is the foundation of the many decisions they will make in life,” says Layco.
“On the next days, students got to choose classes with CEOs, founders and change-makers. They were taught about mindfulness, the power of their minds, compassion, purpose and classes that taught them how to be a better human,” he says.
NBU’s speakers and mentors included founders, CEOs and award-winning change-makers. Among them are celebrity Hero Angeles, Forbes 30 under 30 awardee and MyKuya founder Shahab Shabibi, International Viral CEO Charity Delmo and The Dessert Museum and Inflatable Island president Lance Tan.
Ultimately, the pop-up campus is designed and curated for transformation, not incremental learning. “If we turn on their intellectual curiosities, they will be ultimately change-makers who are not accepting the status quo and will find ways to solve problems with more courage,” says Layco.
Layco, a marketing consultant of the Tourism and Trade departments, says he is now in talks with a government agency to implement the NBU concept among its employees.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show that in 2018, more than 6.3 million Filipinos were underemployed or those who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, get an additional job or have a new job with longer working hours.