College offers free education to workers

Sunday, July 31, 2011

TO UPGRADE the quality of workers in manufacturing firms, a manpower agency recently launched Ikon College in Lapu-Lapu City to serve as a mentoring facility and offer free college education to workers who are undergraduates.

Nozomi Fortune Services Inc. founder and chairman Alexander Arnados said the setting up of the education facility is meant to address the gap between industry requirements on quality of manpower and the graduates produced by the academe.

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“The gap is a perennial problem. The establishment of Ikon is aimed to at least help both the industries and academe produce the quality of workers for the country,” Arnados said.

Arnados said the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) approved the school’s
application to offer free industrial engineering courses to undergraduate workers. The school is also looking at offering other courses as part of its plans.

The programs offered at Ikon College will operate under Dual Training System (DTS), one of the preferred training programs for enterprise-based training in the country.

DTS is an instructional delivery system of technical and vocational education and training that combines in-plant and in-school trainings based on a plan designed and implemented by an accredited system of agricultural, industrial and business establishments.

“This facility will serve as an avenue where workers would learn the theories, while their respective workplaces would be their laboratories,” he said.

Arnados said the school also earned accreditation to partner with companies operating under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza). He cited the bread manufacturing company Gardenia, which allowed half of its workers to enroll in the program.

Ikon College initially has 700 students. Arnados said the firm plans to open 18 schools in locations near economic zones.

Peza director general Lilia De Lima lauded the efforts of Nozomi in creating a program that she said is beneficial for the country. She said skilled workers such as engineers are a key factor in sustaining the country’s investment growth.

“We still have the best workforce, so we should train them,” she said.

She said the industry will be needing more skilled workers as existing locators in economic zones continue to expand and hire more employees.

De Lima said the country continues to attract foreign investors because of its competitive labor cost and quality skilled workers.

She said other Asian countries have significantly increased their labor cost, making them expensive investment destination for most foreign countries. “We are much better than other countries (in terms of cost),” she said.

De Lima said foreign companies favor Filipino workers because they are easily trainable and hard working. She said Peza is now actively reaching out to technological schools in the countryside to train more engineers for the growing export industries, particularly the electronics and semiconductors sector.

De Lima also said they hope to exceed the 10 percent growth target in investments this year with the continued expansion of businesses as well as increasing confidence of foreign investors in the country.

Peza estimated in investments as of June this year at P70 billion, which is 38 percent higher compared to that recorded in the same period in 2010.