With its aim of professionalizing the automotive industry of the country and enable the production of qualified human resources to further bolster the influx of investments, Toyota Motor Corporation- Japan provides CTS-Cebu with both technical and financial assistance as one of the recipients of their worldwide Hi Tech Training Packages under the Toyota Technical Education Program (T-TEP).
As their step towards harmonizing institutional efforts of producing globally competitive graduates, the College of Technological Sciences- Cebu (CTS-C) has launched its Bachelor of Science in Automotive Technology (BSAT) course last Tuesday with the initiative from Toyota Motor, Corp. and in partnership with TESDA and CHED.
Since Toyota wanted to achieve the best talents in the automotive industry in their pool of workers, they have engaged in an academe- industry linkage and extended their aide through providing recipient schools like CTS-C with educational automotive equipments and systematic program called the Technician Education for Automotive Mastery (TEAM).
According to Toyota Motor Philippines Foundation, Inc. Education Sector Head Ronald Gaspar, “we get the best automotive students to train and become 21st century technicians and eventually get them to work for us after graduation. Our programs are aimed so that there will be no job-mismatch.”
From their initial observations, Gaspar said that some courses taught in state universities and colleges these days are actually not needed by the industry hence graduates usually end up either with mismatched jobs or they become underemployed if not totally unemployed.
Toyota already has 14 partner schools in the Philippines with scholars now reaching to 100. These scholars are free of tuition and are assured employment in their 30 Toyota Dealership Centers. Gaspar said that usually, 80% of their scholars are employed in their national dealerships while 20% goes abroad.
At the moment, Gaspar said that there is a strong demand for technicians and automotives not only abroad but even locally.
In a study done by Toyota scholars in Ilo-ilo, it has been found out that DTI actually has enlisted 2, 000 enterprises in need of automotive expertise. In their company alone, Toyota needs to over 100 to 200 manpower in their dealership all over the world.
“Our technicians are being pirated abroad nowadays because they’re already well trained with world-class standard,” said Gaspar.
According to the Dean of CTS Dr. Avelino S. Genon, in his speech that employee turnover in the field is great due to the lack of proper training and expertise. “Technicians in automotive technology today are highly demanded in the industrial world. The number of experts in this field is scarce. So, the degree in Automotive Technology is aimed to produce professional-technician graduates,” he said.
