Seminar details:
Thursday, 1 June 2006
3:30pm-5:00pm PST
Cordura 100

Seminar speaker:
Audrey Codera is the Chairman of the Philippine Youth Employment Network,
Inc., an organization aimed at bringing employment and employability to
grassroots youth in the Philippines (www.yesweb.org) relying heavily on
youth volunteers and the use of ICT. She works with various sectors of the
Philippine government, the Private sector such as the Philippine Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, NGOs and international institutions such as the
International Labor Organization in Manila in ensuring that youth
employment are included in policy-making. She has been the Youth Employment
Summit - Philippines Country Coordinator since August 2003. She started a
micro-finance company with a specific credit window catering to
underprivileged youth entrepreneurs and has a small business promoting
hand-made native bags and accessories which provides women and youth the
opportunity to work at home and add income to their households.

She has a Bachelors degree in Humanities with a special certificate in
Political Economy and an MA - Political Economy, International Relations
and Development. She is currently taking another graduate degree course in
Public Management. She is also certified trainer of the Basic
Entrepreneurship Development Course. She is currently a Visiting Scholar
at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the School of International
and Public Affairs, Columbia University, a Foreign guest at the
International Center for Tolerance Education and an Emerging Fellow of the
Youth Social Enterprise Initiative.

Audrey has been engaged in youth work for nearly ten years starting with
volunteer work for various non-government organizations, moving on to
working for the business sector, which brought her back to her passion -
youth development work.

Her stay in ICTE and Columbia University will give her the chance to
evaluate PYEN’s Community-based Youth Entrepreneurship Program, revise
CYEP’s training program to incorporate a module on cultural understanding
between Muslims and Christians as well as analyze current youth employment
policies. She’s also working on toolkits for the training modules for
underprivileged youth entrepreneurs. She also hopes to learn strategies
on development work catered to grassroots youth and microfinance for
grassroots youth entrepreneurs.