Australian-style training at Clark

What used to be Clark Air Base has now become an “education city,” where world-class automotive technologists, welders and boiler makers, air-conditioning split systems operators, tractor mechanics and operators, health care givers and hoteliers are being trained for future jobs abroad.

Clark Education City (CEC), located in 300 hectares of the once site of the Centennial Expo, is centrally located at the Clark Freeport Zone, also known as Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ).

Four hundred students from India, Bangladesh and Vietnam are currently undergoing Australian Vocational Training (AVT) under an international faculty with expertise in vocational courses. Angel Ordono, CEC vice president for regulatory and corporate affairs, said Site Group International, which owns and manages CEC, after a long search, found, two years ago, Clark as the best site for the first AVC campus outside Australia. CEC director Steve Ghost said the choice was based on “proximity to an international airport (the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport), the infrastructure in place, and a large English-speaking population.” Other factors considered were security, and I guess the atmosphere’s being friendly in the city community of 400,000 people.

The search team found the place overgrown with “grass as high as a grown man,” said Angel Ordonez, now CEC vice president for regulatory and corporate affairs. Although infrastructure — like the enormous ampitheater, and bungalow-type buildings for offices and private quarters were in place — Site Group pumped in Aus$11 million for improvements, and, said Ghost, will be putting in another $10-million investment.

Ordonez and Ghost gave us a tour of the campus. In a fully landscaped and relaxing environment are huge one-story buildings housing air-conditioned classrooms, kitchens for cookery, a library, areas for welders and machine operators, skeletons of buildings where students learn to install cable and telephone systems, a medical center, dormitories (students have to live within the campus), a restaurant manned by student trainees under the supervision of an experienced chef, canteens (tuition fees include three free meals), a convenience store, onsite personal laundry, sporting and leisure facilities.

English is the lingua franca in the setting, and I suppose, the Australian accent is also being used by the faculty. Students, even young pupils interested, take English lessons during the summer. Murals of Australian scenes are painted on the walls, and the rooms are named after Australian cities, to acclimatize students with life Down Under.

But that is not to say graduates are assured of employment in Australia. They have to find their own employers during and after graduation in courses that last from six to 18 months. For sure, Ghost said, Tesda and Australian accreditation at CEC gives graduates a competitive advantage in finding employment abroad. And there are numerous jobs waiting for accredited workers, among them, said Ghost, 60,000 in the Australian mining industry.

The courses are expensive, $5,250 for certificates III in automotive technology and mechanical trade (diesel fitting) and in fabrication trade, certificate in business, and $7,850 for a business diploma for 18 months training. Health coverage must also be paid for.

Ghost said a study-now-pay-later plan has been closed on account of student’s inability to pay. So CEC is deep into attracting foreign companies to invest in the training of applicants they have accepted to join them. Next month, about 3,000 students are enrolled by foreign companies for training.

Company support is apparently the lifeblood of Clark Education City.

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On another front, the Reproductive Health (RH) bill cannot be dismissed as a mere duplication of existing laws. Rather, its passage would lead to the adoption of a clear-cut and cohesive national policy on reproductive health and responsible parenthood that should guide the programs of the Department of Health (DOH) and local government units (LGUs), Sen. Pia Cayetano stressed at the continuation of plenary debates in the Senate last week on Senate Bill No. 2865, or the proposed “National Reproductive Health Act of 2011.”

Cayetano, one of the bill’s sponsors, refuted Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III’s contention that the RH bill was unnecessary since it was duplicating existing laws. “To say that [the RH Bill] is unnecessary simply because there are other laws that touch on a similar matter . . . [is not] a sufficient reason not to pass this law,” she said.

Sotto said duplicating laws are the Magna Carta of Women (RA 9710), Presidential Decree No. 965, which requires marriage license applicants to receive instructions on family planning and responsible parenthood, and Administrative Order No. 2008-0029 of the DOH, which lays down the agency’s MNCHN (Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health and Nutrition) strategy.

Cayetano clarified that the Magna Carta of Women is a general law, while the RH Bill is a specific law that seeks to enhance certain rights as enshrined in the Magna Carta, particularly on the right of women to health. “The Magna Carta speaks of many rights of women, and only one of which pertains to reproductive health.”

She said “There are laws that address many issues in RH, but none of these laws are specific to reproductive health the way [SBN 2865] it is intended to be.” The Magna Carta of Women covers many issues that affect women, and reproductive health is definitely a part of it. So to that extent, the members [of the 14th Congress] who passed the Magna Carta of Women included reproductive health. But that would not, in any way, prevent or prohibit us [members of the 15th Congress] from now passing an RH measure that is very specific.”

“Without a governing policy on reproductive health, many local government units choose not to make available reproductive health [services] to their constituents,” said Cayetano. For example, Cayetano’s Barangay Ayala Alabang had passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of contraceptives even to married couples. The public outcry against such an ordinance was, to say the least, ear-splitting. As a result, the Muntinlupa City council overruled the ordinance.

Cayetano welcomed proposed amendments that Sotto may have to help streamline the bill’s provisions.

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The Alay-Lakad Para sa Kabataan Day is scheduled for Sunday, September 4. This 39th anniversary activity, says Alay Lakad president Frank Evaristo, has adopted the theme, “Hakbang sa Pagbabago, Alay sa Kabataang Pilipino.”

The walk is the signature fund-raising project of the AL Foundation, Inc., a non-government and non-political organization. It involves the participation of various government agencies, the education sector, business establishments, local government units and socio-civic organizations. This year’s host organization is the Junior Chamber International Philippines under the leadership of national president Bernard Faustino Dy and Armi Nabalit, chair of the National Coordinating Committee for Walk 2011. Proceeds of the campaign will benefit the country’s out-of-school youth population through an educational assistance, skills training and livelihood programs. Donations will be accepted either on the walk day itself at the Quirino Grandstand, Rizal Park, or after the walk. For inquiries, call the ALFI national secretariat office at tel. no. 5226134.

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