The Provincial Cooperative and Enterprise Development Office (PROCEDE) successfully concluded its five-day Design Thinking Training (November 20-24, 2025), the foundational phase of the Livelihood Integration and Growth through Holistic Training (LIGHT) Initiative. Student-delegates from Aldersgate College’s College of Business Management and Accountancy (CBMA) completed a rigorous program focused on transforming user insights into actionable, human-centered business concepts for the local “Knock Down Furniture” market. The training systematically guided participants through the vital stages of Empathize, Define, and Ideate, setting a strong strategic foundation for their eventual products.
The core of the intensive five days was the mastery of Ideation and Co-creation. Teams engaged in multiple brainstorming cycles to challenge assumptions and generate a wide spectrum of creative solutions, ensuring their furniture designs were not only innovative but also economically viable and practical for Nueva Vizcaya households. Crucially, the training integrated essential Project Management principles. Students learned to select, prioritize, and structure their best ideas, developing an organizational framework necessary to manage the complexity of product development from concept to a market-ready prototype.
To forge unity and test their executive capabilities, the program featured high-impact workshops. The “Tallest Tower Challenge” demanded rapid strategic planning, efficient use of limited resources, and decisive teamwork, providing a microcosm of real-world project constraints. Similarly, the “Collect the Ball” exercise underscored the critical role of clear communication and optimized team processes for achieving collective success under pressure.
These hands-on activities effectively sharpened the students’ collaborative skills and prepared them for the tangible work ahead.
With the Design Thinking phase complete, the CBMA teams have now moved from abstract conceptualization to the threshold of physical creation. The next crucial step in the LIGHT Initiative is the Prototyping Training, scheduled to transform their validated ideas into tangible models, bringing them one step closer to the final Business Pitching Competition on December 5, 2025.
