Robredo keynotes skills training program graduation in Leyte

ORMOC CITY, Leyte, June 13 (PNA) -– Incoming Vice President Leni Robredo keynoted the commencement exercises for the last batch of trainees of Kananga-EDC Institute of Technology’s (Keitech) extension service training over the weekend.

A total of 163 young men received national certificates for the courses in carpentry (27 trainees); plumbing (65); and electrical installation and maintenance (71).

Keitech is a post-secondary technical-vocation training center established in 2009 by Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in neighboring Kananga town. It offers a 10-month training program for the most in-demand jobs in construction, metals and engineering, and tourism.

Since its primary purpose is to help the poorest of the poor, each student receives full scholarship including uniforms, shoes, safety gears, school supplies as well as free accommodation and food during the training. The employment rate of graduates from the regular 10-month training program is 90-98 percent.

The program, however, was interrupted in November 2013 with the onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda.

Seeing that there were few skilled workers for the rebuilding efforts during the calamity’s aftermath, Keitech devised a program wherein trainees can obtain an NCII, the minimum certificate for employment, within the shortest possible time.

Thus, Keitech came up with the extension service program, an extensive three-month training that aimed to produce 1,000 skilled workers in nine batches. It began in April 2014 with high school graduates from Ormoc and Kananga as well as the towns of the 2nd district of Leyte and south Eastern Samar as target beneficiaries.

Two years later, the short course training program has produced 1,003 skilled workers. Of the 830 graduates from the first eight batches, 73 percent of them have reported finding gainful employment in Cebu, Manila, Subic and construction projects in Leyte.

With the conclusion of the extension service program, Keitech will resume its regular courses on construction which will have four sections; metals and engineering; and tourism that will have one section each. Each section will have a maximum of 30 trainees.

“You are so lucky to be part of this school and to have been given the opportunity of a lifetime to better your own lot, to lift your family from poverty and serve as an inspiration to your countrymen,” Robredo said in her speech.

“This kind of tragedy (typhoon Yolanda) was bound to change us as a nation. With your graduation this morning, I hope you are also saying goodbye to the crippling frustrations that lie in the past and move forward to a new beginning,” she added.

The Vice President-elect lauded Keitech for not only providing free trainings to the students but also for instilling moral values formation to enable them to gain self-discipline, professionalism and correct work attitude.

This consists of a discipline-oriented training environment, with values development focusing on respect, honesty, teamwork, leadership, cleanliness, etc.

“If only all our schools can instill the same kind of discipline and value formation given to you by this school, it would have solved many of our society’s ills. You are the symbol of hope and inspiration in our country,” Robredo told the trainees.

She also praised the Lopez Group for being at the forefront in the rebuilding efforts. “When EDC and Lopez Group came together to provide help at the earliest possible time so that people and goods can be transported to ground zero, it was a testament to our bayanihan spirit.”

“It was a testament that we can harvest synergies and even set aside differences to focus on what we need to do at the soonest possible time. We want to say that, too, for our nation, that we can learn to heal and rebuild after the difficulties of our past.”

Robredo pointed out that the unity demonstrated by the people after Yolanda can be replicated in healing the nation after the strife-marked elections. “The recent elections proved to be very divisive for us as a people. But as what your province demonstrated after typhoon Yolanda, it is not impossible to set aside differences to unite this country once again,” she said.

In closing, Robredo reiterated her promise to use her office as a platform for convening and engaging stakeholders to push for her vision for the country. We will scale up our anti-poverty programs to work for zero hunger, development in the rural areas, and giving the marginalized voice and space in our society,” she concluded. (PNA)
LAP/SQM/FELIX N. CODILLA/EGR