Will 2012 Be My Year?

Could 2012 be my year for foreign travels??? Oh well, there’s no harm in hoping for the best and aiming high right? My illusions (if you could call it that) began in July when I was nominated for a foreign scholarship program, specifically the Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) program for the fiscal year 2012-2013. I was lucky to be one of the 6 employees who were nominated from our cluster and I could say that just by being nominated is already an honor.

The Philippine government has started the implementation of the JDS program in JFY 2002 with the assistance of the government of Japan. The program provides opportunities to promising and young government officials to pursue a 2-year Master’s degree program in selected accepting universities in Japan. Likewise, it aims to support human resource development by developing leaders who are expected to be engaged in the formulation and implementation of social and economic development policies of the government. The participants, on the other hand, are expected to use the acquired knowledge and actively participate in responding to the social and economic development issues and concerns of the Philippines.

That was that first opportunity that knocked on my door…The second happened early last month and I was again nominated for another foreign training. This time, it will be in India and the program will be about Accounting and Financial Management in Government Sector under the Technical Cooperation Scheme of the Colombo Plan. The duration of the training will only be less than a month so that means I won’t be away from home and from my family for a long time. Honestly, I prefer the India training over the scholarship in Japan. In fact should I be lucky and be included in the shortlist, I might end up giving up the scholarship in Japan mainly because I cannot afford to be away from my family for 2 years (considering that my parents are already aged 81 and 75).

The most important of all the opportunities that came my way was the third and so far the last…Hmmm, save the best for last? Anyways, it was the chance to apply for inclusion in the pool of auditors for international organizations. Being in the pool means that you get the chance to be deployed to other countries to audit international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Who wouldn’t want that? And I must admit that it has been my dream since I joined the organization more than 10 years ago. The training and the exposure will no doubt make me a better auditor. Now, that dream is almost (ALMOST) within my reach and all I can do right now is just hope for the best.

With all these opportunities, I wish that 2012 will be my lucky year! :)