Pesino-Pacao, M. L. M. (2016). Streamlining the training requirements for cooperative officers: A management case (Unpublished master's thesis). Public Management Development Program, Development Academy of the Philippines.

Public Management and Development Program. Batch 5 Senior Executives Class. Thesis (SEC)--Development Academy of the Philippines.

Cooperative education and training is the foundation of the success and sustainability of cooperatives as an organization and as an enterprise to prove equal to the task of being instruments for equity, social justice and economic development. This is the paramount consideration of this management case which writes down the experiences, challenges and measures adopted by the Cooperative Development Authority when a dilemma on the implementation of a regulation on trainings required for officers of cooperatives challenged the balance between the regulatory and developmental functions of the Agency. This study will provide additional input on drafting and reviewing policies on cooperative education, specifically the Rules and Regulations Implementing RA 9520 which is subject to automatic review every three years. This study will likewise form part of the universal pool of information as to importance of training and education for cooperatives. The case is about a dilemma on the implementation of the training requirements which had a low compliance rate, problem on feasibility of monitoring compliance and difficulty of imposition of sanctions to non-compliant cooperatives. CDA initiated a review of the existing policy on training requirements for cooperative officers as contained in the IRR of RA 9520. Series of consultations were done with cooperative leaders, training providers, partners and stakeholders for additional input to the proposed revision of the training requirements. The result of the consultations was made an input to the review and revision of Rule 7 of the RA 9520 IRR. The Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Cooperatives approved the Revised Rules Implementing RA 9520 which took effect on July 2015. Rule 7 of the Revised IRR decreased the required training programs from fourteen (14) to two (2) plus specialized training for cooperatives with savings and credit operation. Micro cooperatives have lesser required training hours that the other categories of cooperatives. Attendance to the required trainings shall be considered compliance for as long as the officer remains an elected or appointed officer of the cooperative because of the removal of the "5-year validity" of trainings attended. The new policy is more developmental than regulatory and is adherent to the principle of subsidiary as it gives the cooperatives the responsibility to craft and design their own cooperative education programs based on identified capacity gaps on areas of the organization and enterprise operation and the available resources of their cooperatives and the government will only intervene where necessary. To build on the gains of the purposive change in the policy on cooperative education for officers of cooperative, the following courses of action are respectfully recommended for further study and consideration: Concrete programs for training requirements of micro cooperatives including newly registered cooperatives; technical assistance to cooperative on the conduct of training needs analysis to determine appropriate training courses for its officers and/or the preparation of a comprehensive education program, where necessary; mechanism for administrative monitoring of compliance of officers with the new training requirement. Further research is recommended to answer the following questions which emerged during this study: 1. How did the decrease of training requirements affect the competencies of the cooperative officers? 2. Will the removal of the 5-year validity period work against the concept of continuous cooperative education? 3. To what extent should CDA or other government agencies be involved in cooperative training and education pursuant to the principle of subsidiary?