XiJEN College

Joel T. Fagsao, CEO of Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. holds the regional and national tropies in recognition of the school's winning Kabalikat Awards. In photo is erstwhile supporter of Xijen College, Dr. Antonio "Tony" Quirino.

By Christine Macli-ing Oliquiano (TESDA, Mountain Province)

Taguig City.  Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. is this year’s national winner for the Kabalikat Awards in the institution category.  The Kabalikat Awards is the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s (TESDA) annual institutional award given in recognition and honor to its outstanding partners in the promotion and enhancement of technical education and skills development.  The award was received by Xijen College CEO, Joel T. Fagsao on the occasion of TESDA’s 16^th founding anniversary at the Tandang Sora Hall, TESDA Women’s Center last August 25, 2010.  Xijen College, already a regional winner in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) bested Region VII’s Provincial Training Center.

The Kabalikat Awards has three categories, Institution, Local Government Unit and Industry.  The Institution includes TESDA partners from the public/private schools, training institutions, training centers that employ best practices in the promotion and enhancement of TVET.  Local government units may be a barangay, municipality/city or provincial unit, office of the Congressman or Senator and other related local government offices which provide exemplary support and cooperation with TESDA while the industry category includes industry associations or individual establishments/firms/companies that adhere to best practices in the promotion and enhancement of TVET.

It was a fitting award for Xijen College, formerly, Xijen Institute of Technology that started as a one room computer training center in Bontoc, Mountain Province in 1992.  The school started with contributions from Fagsao’s wife, Helen who was then working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong and support from parents of Fagsao. The school relentlessly promoted computer literacy programs by establishing computer labs in remote barrio high schools of Mountain Province long before the government equipped schools with computers.  A high school in Bebe, Monanom Sur, Bauko, Immaculate Heart High School in Natonin, Antadao National High School in Sagada, ALBAGO National High School in Balili, Bontoc, Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School and Saint Vincent’s High Shool in Bontoc, Mabaay National High School in Bauko and Sadanga High School, Sadanga were some of the recipients of Xijen’s Computer to the Barrio’s program.  The fees charged to students were subsidized by Xijen College.  In some high schools, Xijen College provided teachers to teach in the computer labs.

Xijen College continues to make inroads in promoting technical vocational programs especially in the field of Information Technology.  The capital town, Bontoc has seen the rise of internet café and business centers either operated by or with Xijen graduates as employees. Graduates have also been employed in call centers as support technicians or in various establishments local and abroad.  Xijen College also started offering degree programs in education, information technology and business.

On the same occasion, the TESDA also awarded Renante K. Cobcobo as national winner in the 2010 Idols ng TESDA.  The Idols ng TESDA award is given in recognition of graduates of technical vocational courses who made it their vocational careers.  Cobcobo, a cosmetology graduate who has roots in Mountain Province is owner of Reynante Cobcobo Salon, a progressive beauty salon with branches in La Trinidad and Bontoc.

The awarding ceremonies were graced by Executive Secretary Atty. Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr., Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva, TESDA Director-General. In his speech, Ochoa stressed the importance of a technical-vocational career that helps in narrowing the gap created by a mismatch in career choices of high school graduates over what the industries offer as jobs.

buddy press website

Xijen College of Mountain Province has setup  ”Buddy Press” on the college’s official website (www.xijen.com).  BuddyPress is a social network application that can be embedded in a website.  School sites tend to be sources of information on courses offered, school activitities and final grades.   School sites tend to be straightforward and offer less interactivity.  BuddyPress will try to change this.  As mentioned in its website, www.buddypress.org : 

“BuddyPress is built to bring people together. It works well to enable people with similar interests to connect and communicate. Some of the fantastic uses might be:

• A campus wide social network for your university, school or college.
• An internal communication tool for your company.”

With this in mind, students of Xijen College who are familiar with Facebook can find a new social network service to explore-right on the college’s website.  The school administration will encourage teachers to use Buddy Press as an extension of their classes.  In Buddy Press, groups can be formed where discussions and working on projects, assignments can be done.   The application will also hope to encourage a more comprehensive interaction between groups or students and teachers.  Several support application have been integrated in Buddy Press and this includes a “like” button similar to Facebook’s, a photo album generator, documents/file sharing and more.

In the pages of BuddyPress.org, the site describes how New York Universityuses the application:

“The Academic Commons of The City University of New York is designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use of technology in teaching and learning.  The free exchange of knowledge among colleagues across the university is central to better educating the student body and expanding professional development opportunities for faculty research and teaching.

The site is found at http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/.”

Jessie Padchonga, Juliet Sorya former tourist guides speak to students of Xijen College.

Bontoc, Mountain Province.   “ I am on vacation, but I was still able to guide tourists who wanted to visit Maligkong Rice Terraces..”  This was quoted from Mr. Jessie Padchonga of Bontoc, a former tourist guide who is now based in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.   Padchonga was joined by Juliet T. Sorya, also a tourist guide who was active in the early 80’s and Juliet P. Lucas of the Department of Trade and Industry.  They were the resource speakers in a forum held at Xijen College of Mountain Province on February 16, 2010.  The forum tackled the issues ailing the tourism industry in Mountain Province.  One of the issues discussed in the forum was the dearth of tourist guides in Bontoc and other potential spots in Mountain Province.  Read the rest of this entry →

Xijen College of Moutain Province

By Juliet B. Saley
Philippine Infomation Agency

Bontoc.  Another program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which pursues computer literacy and internet skills among out-of-school-youth and disadvantaged workers will be employing 28 youth mentors in the province.

According to Marcial Pachingel of the DOLE-Mountain Province, the Kabataan Information Technology Opportunities (K-ITO) project provides IT skills to beneficiaries through the help of youth mentors, thereby given them opportunities to land jobs in the information technology industry.

Pachingel said given priority to undertake this program are the barangay officials -to acquaint themselves on the use of the computer as most of them are not computer literate.  They will also be trained on how to surf the Internet focusing on how to research programs of various government agencies posted online.

To avail of this free training, each barangay (barrio) should have a list of eight barangay officials who are interested to undergo 22 hours training.  The training is currently being conducted in partnership with Xijen College of Mountain Province.  Xijen College is the partner school of the K-ITO project.

Most of the youth mentors who are students or graduates of Xijen College will be receiving a stipend of P3,500.00 for the conduct of the 22 hours training.