Tech Talk
by Joel T. Fagsao

After almost 6 months of not traveling out of Bontoc, I dusted my reliable leather overnight bag and hopped into the Cable Tours bus bound for Manila. I was to attend the awarding ceremonies of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s Kabalikat Awards. As founding person of Xijen Institute of Technology, now Xijen College of Mountain Province, I was to be there for the event which coincided with the 16^th founding anniversary of TESDA. I dragged my brother Jonelle Fagsao to tag along so as to keep me company. My brother kayong- Dr. Tony Quirino was there too as we drove to TESDA Women’s Center in Taguig City. A stickler for promptness, Kayong Tony arrived early and we were there quarter to 9 in the morning. I wanted to be seated in the “guest” section but the ushers separated me from my group- as I was led to a table to join other regional winners. Xijen College was the “Cordillera Autonomous Region’s” (as they always announce during several occasions) winner. I was supposed to be there to receive the regional “trophy” but unknowingly there was more to come.

 Executive Secretary Ochoa in his speech espoused the relevance of technical vocational courses that helps fill the needs of the industries. He continued, “Many still regard blue collar careers as a lowly profession.” The new TESDA secretary Joel Villanueva honored the awardees with a brief speech and wished them continued success in various endeavors in moving tech-voc careers forward.

 I only had this idea that after receiving the regional award the program was over then, the chair of the board of judges was called on stage to announce the national winners. Xijen College got the national awards for the institution category. I did not hear it well as Xi-Jen is often times mispronounced. The TESDA Kabalikat Awards is TESDA’s way of thanking the agency’s partners in the promotion of technical –vocational education. To include one in the roster of winners, institutions, local government units, individuals were nominated by local TESDA. There were voluminous requirements- all documented evidences of activities duly certified were submitted. Judging for the national winners (and so I learned while at the program) was done by personalities outside of TESDA.

We submitted accounts of our start up days- sometimes having my staff carry computers to a far flung barrio that are not reached by public transport. Our setting up of an Internet access via satellite long before Internet antennas mushroomed in municipalities of the province. Xijen in its own way- was focused on computer literacy and the promotion of careers in Information Technology.

 In my moments of silence inside the car, I reminisced the early days of Xijen Institute of Technology. Starting in 1992 as a one room affair and finally having its own campus which is still very small by today’s standards- it was a complete dedication to nurture young people to appreciate the other side of white collar careers. The path taken by Xijen may not always be a smooth one, but people my wife and I met along the way were there to offer their support and advices. I have to thank my classmates-Batch ’82 of Mountain Province General Comprehensive High School- Kenny Mosomos- Fatongkeg, Noelle Dapuyen-Oyeng, former Board Member Ezra Gomez and my kabsat Dr. Diga Kay Dirige-Gomez, Rexton Chakas, Robert Changat, all in one way or another had something to share.

My teacher in high school, Principal Evelyn Joyce N. Taguiba who broached me the idea of setting up the Computer to the Barrios program- our community outreach program of setting up computer labs that led us to far Bebe, Monamon Norte, Bauko up to Poblacion and Saliok, Natonin. The computer labs were there from 1 year (the shortest) up to three years. Another that I would like to thank is low profile, Dr. Tony Quirino (my Kayong-Brod) who may not like to be noted here-but still I would. Our long conversations on school management-witty, fully loaded with ideas- I all soaked it up. His advices were all the result of his experience of managing the family owned- Technological Institute of the Philippines, well known for its Engineering programs.

Kayong Tony was always there sharing a bounty of management ideas you could not find in books and of course the genuine care he had for me and the projects I was into. Architect Reimond Guiterez whose family owns Silver Works was also there to lend support in the early days of Xijen. My good friend, Jerson Watan, Web Host Entrepreneur was also the anchor for new developments in Information Technology which eventually would find its way as a new course offering for Xijen. Unknown to many, student’s fees were subsidized by contributions from people I met along the way. I would not like to take this as a thank you speech-thanking people in this and that order. I wish to make it clear there is no order-here. My parents Francisco and Carmen-entrepreneurs in their own right- are my ardent supporters. One is more grounded- and the other is more daring. Mama was the real entrepreneur, but Dad was the strength and pillar of every undertaking-eventually they become a force of one. But mama was quick to remind me when I called her up to watch me on Q TV’s Adyenda show-about my interview after the award ceremonies, a devout member of Jehova’s Witnesses, that all awards are nothing compared to Jehovah God’s promise of a new world on earth bereft of all crimes, sickness, pollution and death. It was the right set of values that gave me and my wife Helen to run a school. Helen, my partner and number one fan was left to do the day to day management of the school as I was tied up to my day job. She is more deserving of the National Kabalikat Award- our names Joel and Helen helped form the name Xijen. Jen came from the combinations Joel and Helen and Xi- a Greek letter in the Greek alphabet- to honor the Greeks for their contribution to humanity in the field of learning.

 To Dr. Josehpine Ngodcho who composed the Xijen College Hymn, Joy Ngodcho and Michelle Malekchan my two lady adoring fans who are there all the time to make a tight day lighter, my two thumbs up.

 To Christine Macli-ing Oliquiano of TESDA, Provincial Director, Gabriel Cayacay and other TESDA staff and to the staff and teachers of Xijen who continue to support the ideals of Xijen I am ever grateful. I might have missed thanking a lot more people, my apologies.

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.

By Joel T. Fagsao

If you are currently working, the thought of leaving your job (your comfort zone) to try earning on your own might not even cross your mind.  In a nation where the mind set is to go to college and earn a living as employees, getting into self-employment is probably the last option.  Majority get into self-employment because there is no choice.  Only a few get an education to help prepare them to manage a business.

Still, if you are mulling to go into business as a profession, then it would be worth it to continue reading through this column.

For the unemployed, you don’t sulk in a corner.  If the only chances of employment available in your area are through a casual/temporary employment in your municipal hall or provincial government, then it’s time to act.  First, prepare yourself psychologically. When I say this, tell it to yourself that “I am ready to start something that I am passionate above even at the expense of being laughed at in the community.”  When my father started the tricycle transport industry in Bontoc,  he was the butt of jokes and observers were skeptic about the viability of the tricycle business.  Today, there are 500 franchisees (tricycle operators) in Bontoc and is a major source of living for many.

There is this thought among many of us that when we complete higher education, we just can’t possibly be janitors in an office for a start or we just can’t be vending in the sidewalks (Sir Iggy would not like this!).

Remember, big things start from small beginnings.  If the only option for you for the moment is to cook patupat (Bontoc’s famous rice cake), then by all means give it your best shot.  Speaking of patupat, don’t you know it earned raves in Manila?  Friends from the city bug me- to send patupat.  In one of the gathering of all provincial heads of a national government agency in Manila, Bontoc patupat was served at break time.  When they asked for a second serving, there was none- unknowingly, some of the patupat landed in most of the participant’s bags.  Lesson learned:  “there is no such thing as a “lowly” business-just bring it a notch higher through creative means.”

Well, I’m trying to get the message across that getting into business to some is for those who did not get into “higher” education.  Let’s turn this around, since you got into “higher” education, put it to good use and improve on a business you think is for the “lowly.”  Just like our patupat example, given the right packaging- it could rival a Goldilocks pasalubong!

Getting into business is not supposed to be the last option.  Getting into business is a career option.  You go for further studies and use what you learned to improve on an existing business platform-in this way you get to preserve your “pride.”  Indeed this is the road less travelled for some.  If you are able to get a permanent job, you would not really give this a serious thought.  You get into the roll of things and contentment sets in knowing that at the end of the month, you have this fixed income.  In business, some days are diamonds, some days may be stones.

The business of getting into a business is a road less travelled- often times the survival rate of newly set up businesses is three years.  Add this to several obstacles that include competition, high operating costs, mismatch in skills that businesses need, corruption, high financing costs and many more.  It could be a bumpy ride ahead but never give up.  The true entrepreneur is able to meet the challenge, rise above it, earn and enjoy the fruits of his labors. (more next week)
***

The first batch of local librarians who availed of the free training on the set up of an Automated Library System conducted by Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. was completed on August 13, 2010.

The next training will be held in September.  Letters of invitation will be sent to your schools.

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 Andrew Dogaong, Philippine Information Agency

Hon. Pascual A. Sacgaca, Bontoc Mayor is guest of honor to the launch of Xijen College's Automated Library System. (Photo: Jason Paleg)

BONTOC, Mountain Province- Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc. launched its Automated School Library System on August 5, 2010.  Bontoc Mayor, Pascual A. Sacgaca graced the occasion and did the ceremonial honors of putting the system into action .  In attendance were school administrators, school librarians from the elementary and high schools around Bontoc and members of the media.

Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc., the lone private institution of higher learning in Mountain Province is one of the schools around the country that adapted the software Infolib. As described in the application’s website, Infolib (http://infolib.alaehweb.com/) is a free integrated library systems designed to provide library and information management solutions for small libraries and non-profit entities with ten thousand or less records.  The system is equipped with modules such as book and periodicals cataloging, circulation (lending), reservation, user records, a reporting system and a web based and local search capability called OPAC.    Infolib was developed by Gerry O. Laroza, systems administrator of the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University.  The aim of the developer as stated in his website is “to help libraries to have fully-integrated system for library management and information access free of charge.”  Schools shopping for a commercial automated library system could be set back for several thousands of pesos.

Clarence Subilla, the school librarian described the ease of use in facilitating student borrowing and keeping track of the books in the library.  Subilla did a demonstration in the borrowing of books where a student submits his or her ID to be scanned by a bar code reader.  Then the student submits the book to be borrowed and the librarian scans the book’s bar code for recording.  The system then records the book borrowed and the name of the student-borrower.   The process of manually recording on the borrower’s card has been eliminated with the use of the system, Subilla said.

In his closing message, Xijen College CEO, Joel Fagsao described that it took some time for the staff, Computer Technician Instructor, Carlo Khensay and BSIT department head, Gomer Pangod to find a suitable bar code symbol-ogy  to be integrated in the student’s ID.  Fagsao added that he wanted to make the student ID card a little bit smart, thus the integration of the bar code symbol in the student’s ID.   Fagsao thanked Bontoc Municipal librarian Chamraine Chakas Casiwen for broaching the idea of using Infolib.  In addition, the Bontoc Municipal Library is also using Infolib.   Fagsao added that the hardware requirements do not necessarily have to be a top of the line computer.  A bar code reader (scanner) is also necessary to make data input faster.

Fagsao expressed that Xijen College will provide free training to schools around the province wishing to establish an automated library system.  The first batch of trainees for school librarians from Bontoc will commence on August 11, 2010.    Schools interested to send their librarians for training can contact Xijen College at 0920 487 3360.

Tech Talk
Joel T. Fagsao

Why did they not think of that?  I was lining up at the ATM booth and observed as the security guard assisted an elderly woman verify if the money booth has something for her.  Grandma cannot read and write and so she puts her full trust in letting the guard enter the PIN number and do the verification.  I do not have any doubts on the trustworthiness of the guard as I have seen our senior citizens being assisted by the guards so many times already.  The thing is, the guard could concentrate more on his primary duty-that of securing the bank if only all bank clients are able to transact alone without assistance.  Alas technology makes it more difficult for the non techie to navigate complicated (to them) transactions that requires at least basic literacy skills.  In India however, it is technology that adjusts to the limitations of their citizens.  In some places in India, ATMs have been designed to accept bio metric scans as a replacement of the PIN.  Instead of entering an ATM card and the PIN number-a press of the thumb on the ATM’s screen (touch screen) is all that is needed to authenticate the transaction.  Then the whole week’s wages is spewed by the machine.  Now why didn’t GSIS, Mega Link’s bright boys do that in the first place? That would have been service placed several notches higher.  

LED Lights

First we had the ordinary light bulb, followed by CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs.  The main purpose of the heavy promotion of CFLs was energy efficiency versus the ordinary bulb.  Then the “green” advocates cried oops…something’s not right.  Yes, something is not right with CFLs.  CFLs contain mercury and are a problem when spent CFLs are disposed.  Not all provinces, cities and municipalities have the capacity to dispose CFLs properly.  Enter into the picture; Light Emitting Diodes otherwise known as LED are coming in to replace CFLs.  LED bulbs are more energy efficient than the CFLs but are not yet in mass production.  You only see them in flashlights (rechargeable) proliferating in our sidewalks and vendor’s stands.  In other countries though, LED lamps are becoming the standard. A few ads are being placed in newspapers flaunting that the LED bulbs can replace even our halogen lamps that light up our tennis and basketball courts.  Cost is still an issue but the promise of a 50,000 hour lifespan for each bulb is a worthy investment.  LED lamps are also great energy savers.  For example a 5 watt LED bulb is the equivalent of a 50 watts incandescent bulb.  Besides cutting your energy bills, the white light of the LED lamps are cooler on the eyes.  Still going further, I hope to see the day when solar powered lamps become the norm.  For now, I will put to the test a solar powered garden lamp that set me back five hundred bucks.  It automatically lights up when darkness sets in.  The brightness is just fine, but I’m taking note of how long it will last.  The downside of using solar powered lighting fixture and other solar powered gadgets is the price.  Solar panels are still expensive and without government subsidy- solar panels will not be as common as the TV set in most homes for now.

***

Another innovation in the tech world is achieving transparency in government transactions.  The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has started the ball rolling.  The DILG website at www.dilg.gov.ph publishes the status of funds of each attached agency.  DILG and the rest of the government agencies could be more transparent when fund utilization of the local units (provinces, municipalities and cities) are also published.  LGUs could also follow suit by publishing where fund allotments have been spent.  Meanwhile, if you want to find out where your congressman’s pork has been spent, you can log on to www.congress.gov.ph and boom!  You have very limited information, not all of the Philippine’s members of congress projects funded from their pork barrel are not listed.  Now that’s what we call transparency.  Only in the Philippines!

Tech Talk
Joel T. Fagsao

Yes, indeed it is quite an amusing title for a tech column.  “Remember the Milk” is a popular idiom in the Western world.  It is simply about finding a means not to forget to buy milk despite having it on your grocery list.  Today, “Remember the Milk” is now a name adapted for a service on the Internet that promises to manage your day to day activities.  Found at http://www.rememberthemilk.com, the online service lets you enter activities, work and other items you would not want to miss doing on a particular day.  Say, you would want to be reminded that that on July 25, 2010, at 10:00 A.M. you have an important call to make.  By entering this reminder on rememberthemilk.com, the service will remind you in many ways possible.  You can set the service to let you receive reminders via email, SMS (to your mobile phone) or instant messenger such as Google Talk, ICQ, Skype, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu or Yahoo.  You can further set it to remind you an hour earlier or hours before the set time and date that a task is due.  It is like having a personal assistant (in person it could be your mother or your boss) who gets to remind you of an important appointment or activity to be done.  I put the service to the test and it works well as it has promised.  I got e-mail reminders in my Google account, an instant message in my Google Talk (chat service) and on my mobile phone (Smart).  There is a problem though with the SMS.  While I do receive the reminder message, it is not provided in its complete form.  You have to reply by pressing G to view the entire reminder-message or B to block the message.  I pressed G and I got the message “not yet in service…” The message continues to inform that you will be charged P2.50 for receiving the full text of the message.  Still even if the initial SMS provides a truncated message, you get this for free.

Now you can go a step further by setting a personalized Google Page and integrating Remember the Milk.  This is a good way to get organized if you have a Google e-mail account.  First, log on to www.google.com/ig  then sign in with your Google e-mail address and your password.  When you are now at the iGoogle page, make this your homepage by selecting the command line “make iGoogle my homepage.”  Now, to personalize your iGoogle page, click on Add Staff, type remember the milk in the search for gadgets box.  Click on Remember the Milk and select the Add it Now button.  Select the back to iGoogle home and sign up on the Remember the Milk registration box.  From there you can now set tasks, activities you want to be reminded of.  Since you set google.com.ig as your home page, the next time you fire your browser; it will bring you to the default page (iGoogle).  Sign in with your Google mail account and this becomes your dashboard to all the things you need to work better.  Your iGoogle page depending on the items you added may have your Calendar, preview of your e-mail (so you don’t have to open it every time you want to access your mail and of course reminders from Remember the Milk.

You can also set the theme of your iGoogle page and select from hundreds of themes available. Remember the Milk when integrated with iGoogle makes for a neat work dashboard.  You have everything you need to be reminded of, a preview of your e-mail and even a chat box and more.  The Internet continues to provide better integrated services to make tasks easier to manage.  You can discover more features of Remember the Milk by exploring it further.  For now, it is enough that I get reminders on my mobile phone (the initial free truncated reminder message) and through my e-mail.

There’s a famed bar in Manila named “The Library” established in the 80’s but I would prefer to reminisce on the library of my childhood.  I am referring to the Provincial Library in Bontoc- a place to spend time and feed your mind.  The American designed building using similar materials the Provincial Capitol was built on- was an ideal place to read and get lost in another world.  The library, a single wooden, stone and cement structure was under the canopy of ornamental “Fire Trees” and the “Ipil” tree with its signature yellow flowers.  The red roof –the same color of paint on the roof of the Provincial Capitol identifies that it is a government building. 

After college (1988), I was then not inclined to search for a job (as there really was not one to be found in the community) and preferred to hang out at the library.  My friends, Brentford Ayochok and Clifford Felwa were in the same boat- we were all jobless and fresh out of college.  We then spent lazy afternoons in the corner of the library where we had an entire cabinet of Reader’s Digest and National Geographic (hand me downs from Asia Foundation, published in the 60’s and 70’s).   Mrs. Andaya, our amiable librarian would leave us alone-exchanging pleasantries for a brief moment and announcing the arrival of “new” issues of National Geographic which were actually published 10 years earlier.  As we read through the pages of the magazine we were eventually hurled into the abyss of the narratives about the Sahara Desert, the Lions of Africa, the North Pole and a thousand and one topics.  Oh the photographs were so vivid; the objects of photography could virtually jump out of the pages and would help complete the story.  Thus was the joy of reading, it allows your mind to create images of what is being read.  The hours spent reading gets you into a spell- a feeling you could not describe so well in words.  It is only in reading where your sense of imagination is sharpened as it forces your brain to interpret the words in vivid images- just like watching a movie.  But it is a movie your mind creates as your eye moves on to the printed words.  The library was our Internet.  It was a World Wide Web in non electronic format.  Yes the web sites were in a hard copy format.  The smell of the musty pages, the feel of crisp paper, and the colored photographs that filled the entire page are things you missed out when comparing the experience to web surfing.   This is something I could not let my kids to experience.  While they may be immersed in coloring books, today’s kids have a shorter attention span and have a better inclination to things electronics.  My four year old son could not yet read and write but he could memorize the alphabets that form the domain name- to his favorite online computer game.

Sadly, I no longer see young people immersed in reading.  They belong to a generation of visual learners.  Like ducks to water, they could quickly learn to handle the mouse and figure out icons on the PC’s desktop.

As I stand in what used to be the library (replaced by a “mammoth” concrete structure), memories come flooding in.  Gone are the Fire Trees that used to surround the plaza with bursts of flame red flowers.  Bontoc has hurled itself into the hustle and bustle of a growing community.  Land mark structures with classic designs which are truly works of art are fast being gobbled by boxy concrete and poorly designed structures.

If you look at the old pictures of Bontoc, there was some sense and sensibilities put into designing the community.  The avenue starting from the bridge in Samoki up to the “Circle” is an epitome of good planning.   The stairways leading to the Provincial Capitol reminds us of the seat of power in this province.

We need to preserve and be more conscious of the design of the structures that would form part of the future landscape of Bontoc.

Now this is where I am excited about, collaborate with my students at Xijen College of Mountain Province to work on a 3D model of Bontoc using the 3D (3 Dimensional) Program of Google Earth.  By developing a 3D model of Bontoc, we can show to our local officials and the rest of the world a walk-through of Bontoc.  A preview of the town in 3D could bring in benefits like “urban” planning, tourism potentials even security planning.  I shall discuss on these developments in my future write ups on Tech Talk.  Have a nice weekend.

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.

Tech Talk
Joel T. Fagsao

Microsoft has upped the ante and remains the office suite queen as it released this month the latest version of its software called Office 2010. Sorry folks, your Office version 2007 has suddenly become history. Similar to car manufacturers who signal the arrival of their latest model based on a particular year, the same is true with software manufacturers. We can just call this, part of a business strategy. There is this pressure of continous improvement over an earlier model because without it, a software company can become a has been in a matter of time. When we talk of an office suite, the key word here is suite. In a hotel, when you stay in a suite, expect complete amenities. The same is true with an office suite that is actually a set of computer applications from word processing, spreadsheets to database and more. In the early days, IBM, Correl were a few companies that provided a similar set of productivity software. Today, IBM and Correl still remain the rivals of software giant Microsoft when it comes to producing office suites. Each company has its own strenghts and weaknesses. Correl’s latest offering is WordPerfect Office X5-Standard while IBM no longer charges for free its Lotus Smartsuite. Microsoft has surged ahead of its rivals by releasing Office 2010 which promises a better version. A check on the various features of Microsoft Word (2010), Excel, Power Point, Outlook and more makes you want to move on the latest version. Basically, visual impact, web integration and online collaboration are the highlights of Office 2010. Office staff can collaborate, update their work while away from the office. Staff can work on any computer that is connected to the Internet because Office 2010 can let you save files on your Skydrive- the web based storage by Microsoft. Skydrive pampers you with 25GB of free storage space. So what can you do in Office 2010? In PowerPoint 2010, you can edit video that you embedd in your slides. A presentation created in PowerPoint can also be viewed on the World Wide Web instantly by your clients. In Excel, select or highlight a group of numerical data and you have an instant graph visualization of the numbers. In Word, its a visual delight. You create impressive documents with graphics enhancement features. Those are just some of the new features of Office 2010. So how much does Office 2010 cost? The complete set that includes OfficeNote, Publisher and Access sets you back by US$499 or let us put it at P25,000.00. The student edition is at US 149.00 or P7,450.00 is cheaper but minus Access and Publisher. The licensed editions sell at this prices while your illegal copies might hit your “side walk” vendors soon. Of course unlicensed editions will have no updates. Meanwhile, you can still work online with the new Office on Skydrive. If you have a Skydrive account, you can now work on a new Word document, Excel worksheet or create a presentation in PowerPoint. You can all do these right in your Skydrive account. This is Microsoft’s answer to Google’s Google Docs. Even if you don’t have Word, Excel or PowerPoint installed in your computer (e.g. you are in an Internet Cafe rushing your report), you can still work on your documents. These are the developments for the workplace. Time comes when commuting to the office is no longer practical when you can finish your report at home or collaborate with your work mates on a single document-online. So roll up your sleeves, lay off Facebook for a while, explore new ways to work with a trial version of Office 2010 or register for an account at Skydrive and discover the Office Web application. (Tip: type Skydrive or Office 2010 in your Google search box). Create your own company or organization website with the popular and easy to use WordPress. Enroll the course at Xijen College of Mountain Province. Schedule of classes is from 5:30 to 7:00 P.M. every Tuesday and Thursdays. For details inquire at 0920 903 1948.