XiJEN College

Xijen College is a Proud Partner Institution of the Program
by Agueda Ambasing

A free learning and earning scheme for youth volunteers of the Department of Labor dubbed “ Kabataan Information Technology Opportunities (K-Ito), has benefited 164 youth, teachers, barngay health workers, barangay officials  and twenty volunteer youth mentors in Mountain Province.  Marcial Pachingel, Labor and Employment Officer III of the DOLE’s Mountain Province Field Unit said that the successful implementation of the program has enabled computer illiterate participants to discover the benefits of information technology.  In the program’s scheme, IT-literate unemployed youth have been tapped to mentor  participants in computer operations and to learn how to use the Internet to access online government programs and services.  Participants from the barangays of Bontoc incluing Poblacion, Tocucan, Samoki, Bontoc Ili, Guina-ang, Talubin, Calutit and Antadao in Sagada, Lagawa in Bauko, Tue and Kayan in Tadian were tapped for the program.   It was a youth-mentoring- the- computer illiterates- program so that computer technology graduates from Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. and other schools were tapped to teach and earn at the same time.  Participants were required to complete a 22 hours training and the youth mentors earned a stipend on a per hour basis.

To  implement the program, Xijen College was tapped as the partner institution.  The college’s computer lab was the venue for a majority of the trainings.  Barangay halls were used as the training venue in Tadian and Bauko. 

The progam started in April 2010 and ended in the second week of June 2010.

By Maura Galasa-Mangay-at

The Xijen College Tech-Voc Department will open the Hairdressing NC II training program within the school year 2010-2011.  The school will partner with Herman Malafu, owner of Erica’s Beauty Parlor.  Malafu has been in the hairdressing business for twenty (20) years.  Malafu will share his extensive experience in hairdressing to prospective students who plan a career in the beauty business.

The opening of a Hairdressing Course will provide opportunities for young people who cannot afford a college degree.  Malafu stressed that learning hairdressing skills provides self-employment opportunities.  With this developments, Malafu will head the training program together with other hairdressers who have committed to be in the trainer’s pool.

Xijen College will provide the facilities needed for the training.

By Joel T. Fagsao

Starting April 2010,  Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. will launch the Community IT (Information Technology) Center For Development (tentative name).  The aim of the center is to help address and narrow access to information gap in Mountain Province.   Access to appropriate and applicable information will hopefully improve the lot in life of farmers, micro and small business owners, service providers and other sectors of the community.  The mission of the center is to provide opportunities for people to explore applicable technologies that could be adapted for improved productivity and increased competencies.  “The right information for your needs”is the mantra of the center.  The center is equipped with Internet access, books and hard copy editions and will be manned by trained personnel and volunteer students who will readily assist those seeking applicable information.  Read the rest of this entry →

Last June 13, Xijen staff has to start preparing for the move to transfer at the new building at Upper Caluttit, Bontoc. The new school is supposed to be readied by June 16 but due to some instances, the start of classes resumed at main building so students have to make do with some opening day inconveniences.  Then on June 19, classes were suspended until Saturday for the staff to fix and prepare the rooms at the new building.

During the transfer from the rented classrooms from the early days of Xijen, it’s good that some students came to help in the move, carrying of computers and all the things for the office. Although there are still many more unfinished works on the building, students and staff entered on June 23 after attending an orientation last June 18.

After moving to the new building, it’s hard to make adjustments considering that everyday there’s always a schedule conflict either with rooms or time availability of students which has to be moved or solved.  The computers haven’t been fixed and IDs weren’t yet prepared. No wonder students started complaining on the changes of schedule and we have to give a meeting for concerned students regarding the conflicts and to apologize for the inconvenience caused by this problem.

After three weeks of our stay in this new building, there’s already an organized schedule and students have already adjusted to their new surroundings.  So welcome students and hope you’ll have a wonderful stay with us. God speed!

By: Maura L. Galaza

Building Careers, Building a Nation!

Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. is a private tertiary school based in MountainProvince, Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. The school offers short term courses  from Information Technology to Household Services and up to four year degree courses. Starting in 1992 as Xijen Institute of Technology, the school has moved on to be the alternative center of learning in Mountain Province. The school pioneered IT literacy in this part of the world. Students, office workers benefited a lot from the training programs that the school provided. “Computer to the Barrios” was also a pioneering initiative of the school. This was about the setting up of computer labs in barrion high schools- long before the government and NGOs came up with their own computer literacy programs. When the Internet was at its infancy stage in the country, Xijen was the first to avail of a satellite serviced Internet access. This helped narrow the digital divide in the province. Read the rest of this entry →