SUCCESS STORIES
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The Rise of the Amakan Maker
“ I never would have made it as conveniently, were it not for my TESDA skills training”, thus retorted Tonyo, our featured subject in this success story, as he was interviewed for this purpose.
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The early morning sun sees Tonyo every week day at his office at the garment factory where he works preparing himself for the daily routine job of administering, and overseeing skills testing to a throng of sewing applicants for employment at the garment factory.
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Tonyo is an assistant testing office at the Metrowear Corp, a giant garment company of five thousand sewer employees at MEZ in Lapu-lapu City. Hard work, perseverance and the will to overcome poverty served as the engine that fired him to find a way to achieve his target.
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Tonyo is Antonio L. Cordova, a native of San Agustin, Sagbayan, Bohol. He was born on January 17, 1990 as a middle child in a family of six children to parents Pablo Corodva and Neria Cordova who are farmers.
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Helped by his uncle and aunt, spouses Calixto Lantafe and Merlyn Lantafe of Cawayanan, Tubigon, Bohol, he completed high school as a working student at Cawayanan National High School.
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Back home in Sagbayan after his high school graduation. Tonyo busied himself helping his father make “amakan”, a walling or ceiling panel board made of interlaced bamboo slats. The ordeal earned him bruises, cuts and calloused hands and feet.
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Fired with the determination to obtain the necessary technical expertise to get a good-paying and stable job, in spite of the financial obstacles of his parents to send him to college, Tonyo found a help through his friends who had earlier finish a skills training at PTC Tubigon and consequently found employment. He grabbed the opportunity to enroll at TESDA PTC-Tubigon, taking a course in Dressmaking NC II, as a TWSP scholar, earning him free training, provision of supplies and materials, as well as a P60.00 per day allowance which he used later as pocket money while applying for a job at the Metrowear Corp. after graduation. In addition to his scholarship grant, Tonyo, received the good graces of the TESDA Center Administrator and training staff by permitting him to have free lodging at the TESDA building and providing him with free meals. To reciprocate the good graces given him by the TESDA personnel, Tonyo ran errands and did some chores for them.
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“He deserved our assistance because we know he was a good boy and a diligent worker” said the TESDA Center Administrator.
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On December 7, 2009, a week after graduation at TESDA PTC Tubigon, Tonyo was employed as sewer at Metrowear Corp. Six months later, he became a regular employee of the company with a daily wage of Php267.00. In 2011, he was promoted to the position Assistant Testing Officer with a daily wage of Php305.00, with all the fringe benefits due to a regular employee. A testing officer is tasked with the responsibility to oversee the craftsmanship and skill of a sewer in the sewing of garments during the testing period. He determines who is to hired based on the craftsmanship and time of work of the completed product.
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Tonyo has this inspiring message to all high school graduates so similarly situated as himself before his TESDA experience, “Pursue a technical vocational course at TESDA. The world is now a spring of highly-paid labor employment opportunities for skilled workers”.
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As noted poet Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasized, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might…Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective.”
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PTC Tubigon Graduate Shine
TUBIGON- This bustling northern coastal town in Bohol is host to one of the five TESDA training centers in the province . Provincial Training Center-Tubigon has seen hundreds of skilled graduates from their respective chosen qualifications and leaving the institution to test their much-prized skills in the open employment fields.
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This is the story of an ambitious Loonanon who bravely and courageously surmounted all obstacles, including poverty, to become a successful sewer in a prestigious boutique- VELLA VESTIRSI in Saudi Arabia. She was hired as sewer-cutter in 2013 and is still with the company until now. However different rags to riches stories may be from one another, there is a common denominator that cuts through all, if not most, of them. Hard work.
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SARAH JEAN APOR, Sarah to her barrio folks and friends, is a native of Barangay Catagbacan in Loon, Bohol who was born on February 16, 1987 as the fourth child in a family of six children. She is raised by a mother who is a sewer. Her normal days were spent at her mother’s corner doing simple sewing works as her mother’s assistant instead of being out in the neighborhood playing. This is where her interest and passion in sewing came from.
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Sarah’s father is a retired security guard who eked a living through any valid means of livelihood and with the assistance of her mother, Sarah dutifully burned her candles to earn her high school education at St. Theresa Academy in Catagbacan, Bohol. Fired with the determination to get a good-paying and stable job and to ultimately exit out of the poverty line, Sarah enrolled in Dressmaking NC II at TESDA Provincial Training Center Tubigon in October 2007 to December 2007 under the expert trainer, Concepcion A. Vallecer.
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Having completed successfully the skills training and having passed the National Certificate II in Dressmaking, Sarah was recommended to work as sewer at Metrowear Corporation where she worked for six (6) months. She returned to Bohol and worked at Henry Baron’s Boutique in Tagbilaran City for almost two years, that was in 2008 to 2010. A friend of her encouraged Sarah to apply at NADEZA CLN, a well-known boutique in Manila. She worked in the said boutique for three years. Soon enough, because of her previous experiences in sewing and fashion designing works, Sarah moved on to “greener pastures” to apply as a sewer-cutter in Saudi Arabia.
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Sarah. is 30 years old now, a single mother, would like to share her story to fellow TESDA Alumni. She says “ I owe so much to the TESDA skills training that I have attended and to my most patient trainer Ma’am Ching. It has become my gateway to get a stable and good-paying job here in Saudi Arabia, ”. She added “ Go ahead, dream and work for it. It doesn’t matter where you came from, but where you want to go.”
Drug Surrenderee
TESDA has been an alliance by the government for drugs surrenderer, giving a chance to every individual in gaining skills and knowledge. Trainings where given for them to have a stepping stone to find a job or be a freelance entrepreneur.
Miss Katherine D. Bagolor resides at Cahayag, Tubigon, Bohol, a single mother is one of the drug victims who answered the government call for “TOKHANG” and realize to make a change for betterment of her future. She surrenders and promises not to get involved in drugs. In that Miss Katherine was given a privileged to be a trainee in DRESSMAKING NC II under (STEP) Special Training for Employment Program. The training was held at PTC-TUBIGON, Potohan, Tubigon, Bohol last October 24, 2016 to December 20, 2016. After the training she received a sewing toolkit together with an ordinary sewing machine for her to start business and not just that she also received a training allowance amount of P60.00 pesos per day.
Currently she is employed at LGU Tubigon as TASK FORCE whose job is to maintain the peace and order of the municipality. She also accepts and sews school uniforms for extra income. Happily and contended with her life now together with her child.