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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Echaves: On a clear day
By Lelani P. Echaves
Despite a heavy overcast, one can see his future, even if it’s nine years away.
Take the case of a graduate from a public high school or a small private academy in the provinces. If he has many siblings, his parents are not likely to have the wherewithal to finance his college education. So, he’s likely to get married right after graduation, and start a family of his own. If he has the drive, he could go entrepreneurial. Or follow his parents’ footsteps by plowing the field or having the fisherman’s way of life.
But he could have big dreams. And if his parents have raised him well, he’s no stranger to working with his hands, even dirtying them, like the hands of a marine engineer. After five years of schooling, the marine engineering graduate could become an apprentice in vessels plying foreign shores, starting off with a monthly salary of $400. If he’s diligent, competent and smart, he could easily move up to motorman’s position with a monthly salary of $800 to $1,000.
From there, the 4th engineer’s position waits, as well as a monthly salary of $1,700; then 2nd engineer for $2,900; chief engineer for $4,200. If he’s superbly competent, a clearer tomorrow points to the master engineer’s position with monthly pay of $15,000.
So stated Engr. Artemio Serafico, the senior recruitment and crewing manager of Aboitiz Jebsens (ABOJEB) which provides shipping, crewing, ship management and technical services. The future that he spoke of was not lost on the parents and siblings of ten young teenagers who are this year’s recipients of scholarship grants from the Aboitiz Group Foundation Inc. (AGFI).
There at the Stella Maris Seamen’s Center in Pier 4 last Saturday, one young man from Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; two from Baybay, Leyte and seven from Cebu City and Province attended the awarding and contract signing ceremonies. The grant of P 37,620 per semester covers tuition fees, school uniforms and miscellaneous expenses. Should the expenses increase, there will be corresponding increases.
There they were, in blue and white uniform: Reynald Barillo, Jerome Daing and Alberto Narciso from the Sisters of Mary Boystown; Glenn Vincent Famor from the Our Lady Academy in Ronda, Cebu; and Charito Bonghanoy, Mar Malazarte, Gualberto Cejudo, Reynald Dayag, Jubeth Genon and Dan Royce from the national high schools of Cebu City and Province, and Leyte.
Never losing sight of their concrete future, these young men should finish their studies like a breeze. After all, they bested 30 other applicants for the scholarship grants. It should be no tall order to pass all their subjects and obtain a grade average of at least 85 percent.
AGFI managing trustee Sonny Carpio said it best. To realize their dreams and capture their future, the scholars must have commitment and a good attitude, to achieve their grade-average requirements. It’s a requirement not different from those of 1,300 scholars of the Aboitiz Group all over the Philippines.
The marine engineering scholarship grants are the first for ABOJEB. Though piloted at the University of Cebu, Serafico said the project could expand to Luzon and Mindanao. And the grants are an answer to the worldwide shortage of marine engineers.
ABOJEB vice-president Arleen Asuncion said that by year 2010, the shortage of marine officers shall have risen to 15,000.
Understandably, enrolment at the University of Cebu for maritime degree programs has risen to 4,000. But the yawning gap between jobs and graduates for such jobs continues.
Jobs abound everywhere. ABOJEB alone has 300 ships under crew management, more than 6,000 crew are onboard these ships, and its crew retention rate is over 90 percent. To this group, the young scholars will belong. On a clear day, one can actually touch the future. At last Saturday’s event, there was no mistaking the wide smiles here, the misty eyes there, and between them, a sniffle or two.
(lelani-thinkingaloud.blogspot.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 20, 2006 issue)
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