Alternative learning’ earns dollars

About 15 Capiceños who have been enrolled in the government’s partnership program under the Alternative Learning System (ALS) are already dollar-earners.

Education Supervisor and ALS Coordinator Inmaculada Ocbena of the Department of Education (DepEd) of Capiz Division disclosed that 15 of their graduates in welding and masonry in Mambusao West and Tapaz, Capiz are already working abroad.

Ocbena said that since last year, 38 individuals finished their course in welding, 42 in masonry and 57 in electricity. in Mambusao West alone.

She said that said government program in Capiz was in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Association of Construction of Informal Workers (ACIW) which conducts the intensive skills training and development, the local government unit (LGU) that provides the financial support, as well as the DepEd.

Recently, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that the country’s “best welders are now employed by Hanjin at its Zambales shipbuilding complex, the world’s fourth largest.

He revealed that the Korean shipbuilding giant plans to build five ships a month, 60 ships a year, “and that requires a lot of welders.”

That’s only for starters, he said, as the labor market for welders is bound to expand significantly when Hanjin opens its shipbuilding facility in Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental.

Hanjin’s second shipbuilding complex will be established inside the 3,000- hectare Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental.

When fully operational, the facility would employ up to 40,000 workers, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, stressing that undoubtedly, many of said workers will be welders