ALLIES Authorities establishments and native governments which have partnered with GBF for Iskolar ni Juan have been acknowledged in the course of the tenth anniversary of the mission on July 23. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Jhan Albert Avila’s story is the stuff instructed in lots of tearjerker movies and tv cleaning soap operas.
The second of 9 kids, his primary schooling was spotty, away from college virtually as typically as he wanted to work odd jobs to enhance the household revenue. He did handle to get a highschool diploma and even briefly tried to pursue a university schooling whereas working on the identical time.
However working and finding out, he discovered, weren’t a lot simpler in faculty because it was when he was in elementary and highschool. “Within the 4 semesters I used to be in faculty, I used to be typically within the president’s workplace to get his signature on promissory notes so I can enroll within the subsequent semester,” Avila recollects, talking in Filipino.
Then he heard in regards to the Iskolar ni Juan (INJ) program of the Gokongwei Brothers Basis and determined to use. Meals manufacturing big Common Robina Corp. (URC) employed him as a upkeep technician as quickly as he accomplished his coaching. The job enabled him to assist two siblings get faculty levels.
As he rose from plant manufacturing operator to licensed plant material professional and coach, he has been despatched to completely different URC crops for company upkeep, and skilled the fun of touring in an airplane for the primary time.
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Avila’s is among the extra dramatic success tales of the five hundred or so younger individuals who had been skilled by means of INJ, which marks its tenth anniversary this yr.
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The flagship technology-vocational scholarship program of the Gokongwei Brothers Basis (GBF), the philanthropic arm of the Gokongwei Group, INJ gives expertise coaching and employment in URC to underprivileged youth.
Launched in 2014 in partnership with URC, Iskolar ni Juan is a completely backed scholarship grant that covers tuition, transportation, college provides, uniforms, lodging and meals for underprivileged senior highschool graduates and faculty undergraduates between 18 and 28 years outdated.
Students are skilled in mechatronics and have the chance to be employed in a URC manufacturing facility upon completion of their coaching.
This system consists of a seven-month educational time period and a five-month on-the-job coaching at URC crops and different enterprise associates.
SONG OF JOY The most recent batch of Iskolar ni Juan (INJ) graduates carried out an unique music to precise their appreciation on the tenth anniversary of INJ.
Pathway from schooling to employment
Marcia Gokongwei, daughter of the late tycoon John Gokongwei and managing director of the GBF Board of Trustees, explains the inspiration’s concentrate on schooling. “My father as soon as stated, ‘Schooling is the one technique to save this nation.’ And he believed on this wholeheartedly that he put up the Gokongwei Brothers Basis … for the singular function of pushing this advocacy.”
She provides, “It’s our agency and shared perception that schooling is the important thing to progress.”
Pushed by this dedication, considered one of GBF’s first tasks is the Technical Coaching Middle (TTC) that has since moved from Pasig Metropolis to its present location in Calamba Metropolis in Laguna. It’s the place INJ grantees are skilled within the expertise wanted by URC crops and assist teams, utilizing state-of-the-art tools and amenities by trainors absolutely licensed by the Technical Schooling and Expertise Improvement Authority.
“This heart is supposed to sharpen technical expertise wanted within the manufacturing trade so we will stay aggressive globally,” Marcia says. INJ is supposed to supply a pathway from schooling to employment.
Raymund Ganotice, TTC director, provides that INJ college students are skilled not solely in technical expertise, but in addition in life expertise wanted to succeed. “They’re given management and job-readiness workshops to assist them turn into employable.”
Arnel Nunez, URC director for company upkeep, says, “INJ students have contributed considerably to our productiveness and effectivity. Every day, our INJ students deliver their expertise, experience and unwavering willpower to make sure that our operations run easily and successfully … and their work has a direct influence on the standard and reliability that our prospects have come to belief and rely upon. Their contribution extends past the tangible outputs; it is usually in regards to the constructive power and teamwork they create to the office.”
Excessive influence
INJ’s first decade proved to be a profitable multi-stakeholder advocacy, says Grace Colet, GBF government director. “As we put together to widen the influence of this program, we wish to double our attain to extra college students in want, change extra lives for the higher.”
A major achievement of this system is that many of the graduates have opted to stick with URC, though they’re anticipated to work on the firm for under a yr. Reena Tecson, the corporate’s human assets director, says about 60 p.c of the employees stayed with URC.
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Avila is amongst that 60 p.c. Safe in his job, the place he continues to rise, he appears to have determined to be firmly anchored to URC whereas pursuing a university schooling to realize his lifelong dream of turning into an engineer. —Contributed
