Teeners see bright future after undergoing City’s skills training

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

POVERTY kept them from going to college, but three teenagers are determined to find decent jobs so they can ease their family’s financial troubles.

Jecil Saromines, Mary Mae Ouano and Teresita Bacus have just learned how to use a high-speed sewing machine and to sew by hand.

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Only weeks into their skills training, they now know how to make dresses, skirts and blouses, just like the ones sold in clothing stores downtown.

They are still jobless right now but once their training at the Cebu City Department of Manpower Placement and Development ends, they will work in manufacturing firms in the Mactan Export Zone.

The girls believe their three-month training will prepare them for the job they have long wanted to have.

Ouano, 17, said that aside from the new skills they acquired, DMDP’s Manpower Skills Training Program also gives them the experience some employers require from job applicants.

“At least, when we apply for a job in the factory, we won’t have a hard time with the sewing machines because we already know how to use them. The training here is hands-on so we have an edge over other applicants because we already have the experience,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.

The three teenagers are among the 2,765 trainees enrolled in DMDP’s skills training this year. From 2008 to 2011, around 17,000 have completed their training in various fields.

DMDP provides free training on dress-making, tailoring, drapery, automotive mechanic, refrigeration and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and electronics, computer literacy, computer programming and hardware to Cebu City residents.

Training on hotel and restaurant services such as commercial cooking, baking, pastry production and housekeeping is also available for free.

One-day trainings on beauty care, hair culture, gift wrapping, flower making and arrangement, and soap- and candle-making are also offered.

“Many of our graduates now work abroad while some have put up their own eateries and home-based businesses. So I can say that our program is successful in helping augment the income of Cebu City residents, especially the poor,” DMDP Head Fidel Magno said.

In the culinary art class yesterday, trainees learned how to prepare shrimp toast,
squid stew and skinless longganiza.

Although the training is free, the students bring their own ingredients and pay for the LPG. They also bring their own kitchenware.

With the free training program the City provides for its constituents, Magno said there is an opportunity for people to earn a living.

“Libre na gud na unya gihagoan sad gyud nila ug tiwas ilang training, so amo gyud silang hangyoon nga gamiton nila ilang nakat-onan (The training is free, and since they have exerted effort in coming here every day to finish the course, it would help them a lot if they use what they learned),” Magno added.

Saromines, 17, is just waiting for her parents to open their eatery so she can help run it and cook chicken fillet and lechon kawali, some of the dishes she learned to make in her culinary class.

While waiting, she cooks for their family at home and has also enrolled in the high-speed sewing class.

She can now make her own clothes and those of her family.

“At least we won’t have to buy from the stores,” she said.