Understanding GMA’s vision of ladderized skills training for sustainable development

Just think – the piece of bread you took for breakfast was made possible by ten workers: the farmer, a driver, the miller, the packer, another driver, the baker assisted by the dough kneader and oven tender, the packaging personnel, another driver who takes the baked bread to the grocery, small sari-sari store, school cafeteria or sandwich store.

Without professional skills training, the above technicians cannot produce a quality product. Professional training requires both skilled trainors and complete functional tools. The latter requires a maintenance crew.

The cost of a model school cafeteria

Since 1983, we have called our four secondary education schools "professional high schools" because the high school curriculum provides training and practical application for entrepreneurial skills.

Let us see how much it costs to set up a professional high school cafeteria:

At our main headquarters in Greenhills, where each high school level has at least five sections, we serve 600 snacks and 250 lunch meals. The smaller cafeteria at Sta. Ana branch serves 200 snacks and 100 lunch meals.

A four-burner stove with oven costs P50,000 while a two-burner high pressure stove usually custom-made costs P25,000. This allows cooking of pasta, stir frying, and deep frying chicken. A big rice cooker is P8,000. There are two deep sink washers for big pots, two regular sinks or lavabos. A P10,000 chiller is for vegetables, fruits, sandwich filling, butter and milk, while a P16,000 to P20,000 chest freezer provides the same purpose for the smaller Sta. Ana school, which is beside the Jesuit Xavier House in Pedro Gil.

The pantry stores dry items such as canned goods, pasta and packaging materials such as paper napkins, sandwich bags, plastic spoons and forks. Two working tables with shelf for vegetables, ingredients and seasonings, allow a group of eight to ten students to work daily.

The cafeteria has a P60,000 stainless steel counter with warmer (bain marie) for 14 dishes, a crock pot for soup or congee, extra rice cooker, a sandwich and pastry display rack, as well as an alpha numeric cash register (P20,000).

There are four personnel – a professional cook, a cashier, a seller who prepares the place earlier and a dish washer – helped by the apprentice students. The central purchaser, who gets a revolving fund or petty cash, buys mostly from the Farmer’s market in Cubao. The Sta. Ana Terrace Café sells P45 value meals, such as beef teriyaki or mushu pork served with soup and vegetables. Chicken curry is served with Thai bagoong rice.

Imagine the cost of professional European skills training school

They call it "apprenticeship" in Europe and "dual system" in Australia, usually a two-year course of senior high school. I observed it with fascination at the KLM building in the Netherlands (Holland).

One of two KLM buildings in Amsterdam was filled with technicians, not college graduates but senior high school graduates. In a closer observation of Dutch school apprenticeship, a special school visit grant allowed me to observe the carpentry classrooms of a public high school where all the construction tools were classified for furniture or house construction. They hang in neat rows in a cabinet as ordinarily we would only see in a science laboratory. A Filipino teenage student in the class told me that as a carpenter in the near future, his Dutch salary would be equivalent to a head of a company in the Philippines.

At Saarbruchen, Germany, I visited both a culinary butcher class and a welding class. The former had a laboratory where the carcasses of a butchered cow, lamb, and pig hang suspended in an automated ceiling line, which brought them to the butchers’ tables five meters away. The furniture class with 14 working tables and complete tools also provides training for immigrants.

The Ladderized Training Program

We have a new UNESCO Education Commissioner, Dr. Nona Ricafort, a CHED commissioner, who is very passionate about the Ladderized Educational System. She explained that "CHED and TESDA are jointly implementing Executive Order 358, the Ladderized Tertiary Education System. The interfacing of the Technical Vocational Education and Training with Higher Education will allow certification or recognition of units gained in TESDA registered Tech-Voc programs for equivalent credits under CHED-recognized programs."

TESDA Director General Augusto Syjuco, in his speech On Climbing PGMA’s Ladder — From Hopelessness to Triumph during the launching of Ladderized Education said:

"The traditional educational system is like a tunnel with only one exit and one entrance. When a student enrolls in first year College, it becomes an all-or-nothing deal for her. If she stops schooling, whether it be during the first or second year or one semester short of graduation from College, she falls back to the bottom where she first started – condemned as a College Drop Out."

Why did she fail? Usually for technical training, the hands-on practice is missing – the laboratory work, which should start as early as the first year.

Need for a realistic professional training

Secretary Syjuco added, "Enrolling in the Ladderized BSHRM Program will provide you several Job Platforms. After completing the Tech-Voc Housekeeping National Certificate II (NC II) course and pass the Competency Assessment, you can proceed to Job Platform A as a dry cleaner, public area attendant, room attendant or chamber maid."

"As you move up the ladder in your work, you can take more Tech-Voc courses and ascend successively to other Job Platforms. The Tech-Voc Commercial Cooking NC II is a stepping stone to Job Platform B as pantry worker, pastry cook, or hot kitchen cook. The Tech-Voc Food and Beverage Service NC II will help you rise to Job Platform C as busboy, waiter, food attendant or food server. The Tech-Voc Front Office NC II will help you climb to Job Platform D as Reservation Clerk or Front Office Agent. Meantime, the Tech-Voc Bartending NC II will attain Job Platform E as bartender."

"After reaching each Job Platform, you can have a better-paying job. More importantly, you can continue studying and alternating between work time and study time. There is an open gateway for you to proceed to the BSHRM Degree Program after Job Platform E without having to repeat the subjects learned in the Tech-Voc courses."

However, TESDA should further review these Job Platforms since cooks and pastry workers require more skills than busboys or waiters. What about the laboratory, do they have one? In Switzerland, housekeeping, kitchen and dining courses last for only nine months, with three months practicum in a professional hotel and restaurant. Another year will complete the management training, which includes management, accounting and budgeting, as well as front office procedures. At the OB Montessori College, a two-year diploma course on Food Service is offered, which can be ladderized to a four-year Bachelor in Food Management program.

Will the TESDA ladderized version differ from the DECS Work Education Program?

Professional skills training should start in high school. It should be integrated in the curriculum from first to fourth year. This is the right time because this is the period when the young adult is in search for economic independence. Training and practical application will develop entrepreneurial skills. I believe that most of the private schools are ready to embrace this.

Will the TESDA version of ladderized education differ from the DECS Work Education program during the Marcos years when cosmetology course was offered with no basic equipment of basin and water?

Remember, professional training requires both skilled trainors and complete functional tools to be effective.

(For more information or reaction, please e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected])