Sunday, August 31, 2008 Bogo's tie-up with Tesda trains baristas
BARISTAS are not just confined to serving espressos or lattes in coffee shops, at least in Bogo City.
Through its tie-up with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) 7, the City Government has embarked on a program to train future baristas or coffee servers.
The first batch of 31 students is now serving at City Hall for their on-the-job training.
They serve guests with different coffee concoctions such as espresso, cafe mocha, latte or cappuccino at the City Hall lounge.
“They are serving the City and they get paid too,” Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr. told Sun.Star Cebu.
Martinez said he encouraged the graduates to form a cooperative so they could take out a loan and build their own coffee shop in Bogo City.
Aside from just serving the coffee, the newly licensed baristas also cater to City Hall gatherings.
The graduates were also trained in food service and underwent personality development as well as team-building activities.
The Bogo City Tesda is only the second school to offer barista training in Cebu, after the University of Southern Philippines.
If the Tesda graduates’ coffee shop materializes, it may just be one of the highlights of what the City envisioned as a government center and commercial plaza of Bogo City.
By December, Bogo will start construction of its P150-million new City Hall. In the same area, a group of businessmen has also purchased a 29-hectare lot, with plans of investing in a commercial center.
The Asian Institute of Management is conducting a study on “what Bogo City needs.” Martinez said the study will be of great help to the new city as it plans for its development.
He also boasted of construction of annex buildings for its existing market worth P32 million. Martinez said trading is the City’s main source of income. (JGA)
