Graduates to watch

It is fulfilling to watch time go by when you know something productive is happening every hour and every day that pass you by. Especially if you have a hand in making it happen.

Underprivileged girls are landing jobs in hotels, restaurants and cruise ships here and abroad after a two-year training program, thanks to The Foundation for Professional Training Inc. (FPTI), which provides their training and ensures their employment. For a select few, even board and lodging in Punlaan, FPTI’s flagship school, is assured.

Last Monday, Charriol, through its global initiative “Watch Me Graduate” pledged P1,000 for every timepiece sold in any of its branches nationwide, between  March 16 and May 31. Proceeds will go to FPTI students.

Touched by the foundation’s efforts, Charriol founder Philippe Charriol committed to personally supporting one student himself.

“You give your time, give your energy, savings, and try to make the young girls good girls, finding them a job,” he said to the FPTI teachers and trustees, with much appreciation. “So last year, we contributed a little bit, I hope this year we contribute a bit more. I myself will contribute to one student personally, and I hope to welcome some of them in France, we are very good in food and we have good restaurants.”

Watch the girls graduate in order to realize their Parisian dream.

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There was once a young girl who lived in the slums but is now a pastry chef at the Discovery Primea on Ayala Avenue. She is one of eight children of a printing press operator and a housewife. Through her Bible study group, she learned about Punlaan and she bravely took all its entrance tests.

“I remember during one of the interviews, we were required to come in (a) dress, and I had nothing to wear during that time, so my mama just borrowed one from our neighbor,” Mary Ann Garcia-Agajanian recalled during a lunch at the Peninsula Manila, where the schools’ students and graduates were honored by Charriol, SSI president Anton Huang, FPTI president Nina Solomon and trustee Arlene Keh and Punlaan management.

“I finished my on-the-job training in Azzurro and they hired me right after graduation. I resigned after my first contract and joined Discovery Suites as pastry helper. After one year, Discovery Shores Boracay opened, I grabbed the opportunity to be part of the opening team, and I was regularized as pastry chef de partie. I stayed in the island for eight years, with those years I matured a lot, became independent, professional, and I met my better half. During my stay in Boracay, I supported my parents and siblings financially, and brought them to the island to have their vacations, I was also blessed to have a family of my own and then when Discovery Primea opened, I was, again, one of the lucky persons who were transferred to Manila to open the new hotel.”

Mary Ann and her husband were able to buy a house and lot in Cavite and are paying for a condominium in Mandaluyong, “by installment,” she added.

“Those are for my two boys because we want them to build their future families in a decent place because I know how it feels to live in a slum area. Aside from my full-time job, I also have a sideline of made-to-order customized cakes and pastries and I’m going to make it, soon, as a business and that is for my daughter. Once the business is successful, 10 percent of cake orders will go to Punlaan School,” she promised.

Mary Ann said she never blamed her parents for their lot when she was growing up.

“Instead, I thank them because I perceived from them the true value of education, money, life, and most especially, faith in God. I know that it’s our parents’ obligation to provide for us but it’s also our obligation to make the most of what they can give. Now, I am a junior sous chef in pastry at Discovery Primea, happily married with three healthy and good-looking children. My four siblings are now doing good in their chosen fields — one is a technician, now in Australia, the other one is taking her masters in Law, the other one is a certified engineer, and the other one is in the same field as I am, as a chef,” shared Mary Ann.

With gratitude, she says Punlaan School changed her life, not only by teaching her skills but by inculcating values in her “that became my foundation as an individual and as a professional.”

“No matter where life takes me, lessons from Punlaan are embedded in my heart, and I am proud to be one of their graduates. I would like to thank God for showering me with continuous blessings,” she concluded.

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FPTI president Nina Solomon is a career woman who serves in the foundation for free to “pay it forward.” Her paycheck comes in the form of the fulfillment she gets when her girls transform themselves and their families because of the training they received at FPTI’s schools.

“Many of our graduates rose to become supervisors and managers in establishments here and abroad because of their work ethic, which they learned in school. Success stories of graduates show how education and training at FPTI schools lift hundreds of families out of their poverty, while testimonies of employees and other stakeholders demonstrate a win-win collaborative action of investing in the development of human capital to create excellence in service,” she said proudly, pointing out that many hotels and restaurants commit to hiring interns trained by FPTI.

In the past 35 years, the 4,000 girls who have graduated from five FPTI Schools are now gainfully employed. These schools include one in Quezon City, in Manila, in Laguna, in Cebu City, and the foundation’s banner school, Punlaan in San Juan.

These young women, 16 to 21 years old, undertake a two-year scholarship program under a TESDA-approved curriculum in culinary arts, food and beverage and institutional services, and an intense on-the-job training at select industry partners. Among the graduates who were cited is in fact working as a chef for The Pen’s Lobby Lounge.

Aside from Mary Ann, there are many other success stories that abound among FPTI’s graduates. Nina Solomon says the key to this is the mentoring that takes place in the school.

“Competence and positive work attitudes are the hallmarks of the program made possible through personalized mentoring and coaching in our schools. Through the years, industry partners have grown in number by word of mouth. Upon graduation, many of these young women become principal breadwinners in a typical poor household of about six members, whose father might be a daily wage earner and whose mother, a laundry woman.”

According to trustee Arlene Keh, each batch has about 120 students for a two-year program and they are hoping to increase the number of students per batch to 500. Arlene says they are now raising funds to build a P300-million school building for Punlaan, as they hope to accommodate more students. The old building used to be a maternity hospital.

What I admire about the FPTI is that it doesn’t just educate and train the girls, it also gives them jobs. Their skills are marketable and in demand. Each graduate is thus assured of employment after a two-year course. It’s like teaching them to fish, and finding a place for them to fish — with the net thrown in. They’ll never go hungry again.

Two years  (the length of each course) is 730 days, 17,520 hours and 1,051,200 minutes. Watch them graduate!

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)