Congratulations Graduates!

It's graduation month again! It's time to leave our alma mater and start a new stage in our lives... and that means looking for a job!

Lucky for us UA&P students, our market value in the different industries (especially the advertising industry) is pretty high. But there's another school out there, where its graduates get hired even before graduation. And you've guessed it right! It's DualTech Philippines!!

Last March 1, at UA&P's very own Dizon Auditorium, another surreal graduation of Dualtech was held. Excitement filled the air as the graduates and their proud parents awaited for the ceremony to begin. Dualtech teachers couldn't be happier as they saw their students' dreams being fulfilled. The students' hard work was definitely worth it and has finally paid off.

Not only were the students, parents and teachers happy, even the big names in the industry were happy! Honda and Isuzu have a new reason to be happy because they know that the newest members of their team are excellent, skilled, dedicated and virtuous workers!

Cheers to all the Dualtech graduates! More power to Dualtech!

It's all in the attitude.

Who ever said being out of place was never cool? Almost 99.9% of the time, people assume that if you’re out of place, you’re the biggest loser. That means you’re always out of the loop when it comes to the latest gossip, the last person to pick up on a secret – heck, you were probably the last kid in you’re 3rd grade class to know that the tooth fairy didn’t exist. But contrary to popular belief, being out of place can actually be what makes you stand out. It’s what makes you unique -- competitive advantage is what the marketing students over in the UA&P would call it.

But making your distinct advantage work for you is all in the attitude and in the way you carry yourself. Respect yourself and flaunt what you’ve got. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone (which doesn’t mean that you should go ditch your friends and fly solo, just don’t allow yourself to drown in the views that your friends may believe in but you totally disagree with). Sure, it’s scary, but marching to the beat of your own drum every once in a while never hurt.

That is why we should make the most of our school experiences. Carrying the proper attitude towards our studies (and all other aspects of life) such as that of the students in DualTech made them emerge determined, strong, positive, and ready to face the real world with confidence. Now THAT’S cool.

UA&P and Some Alarming figures

The scarcity of schools, classrooms and funding have already made a huge dent in the education of Filipinos all over the country. According to a study done by the NSCB (National Statistical Coordination Board as of 2005), out of the 6,312,031 students enrolled in elementary and highschool only 2,402,315 actually enter college. The 2,402,315 students do not even represent the actual number who get to finish college. These are alarming numbers indeed! But these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg.

Think about this. The government appropriates only P106,050,025 for the Philippine educational system which is distributed to the three educational branches namely DECS (for basic education), CHED (for higher education), and TESDA (for vocational Education) to fund their respective programs.

This is the ultimate shocker...

P106,050,025 is only equal to the 1st to 4th year education of 230 students from UA&P, Ateneo or La Salle. Two hundred thirty! After learning about this, I felt a cringe in my stomach. I was humbled by these numbers... Aren’t you?

There are a lot of kids who dream of finishing college. However, the lack of resources that many Filipino families experience hinder them from reaching this dream. It is nice to know that schools like Dualtech give underprivileged students the opportunity to finish college and give them a better life. Dualtech may not be able to send 6 million kids to college, but they are trying to make a difference in their own little way. Let us all follow the lead of Dualtech and try to contribute in our own little ways. It wouldn’t hurt to give right?

Honda Commercial-Cog

Watch and be amazed!



Now most of you may be familiar with this commercial already, (especially if you're from UA&P taking up IMC, like we are!) but we decided to put it up here anyway... Why? Because Dualtech students are very much capable of creating the materials used in making Honda Cars run! See those metal things? Dualtech students can make those! No wonder Honda hires these students! They're simply amazing!

What would Honda cars be like without the artistic hands of the Dualtech students?

The Sweatshop

Growing up, I was taught that sweatshops were places where people would work out and sweat profusely (think of going to a packed gym at mid-day with no air-con). To our surprise, Dualtech has their very own sweatshop – except it wasn’t hot and people weren’t working out on machines, they were working WITH machines. And this just wasn’t any ordinary work, this was heavy-duty manual labor that you thought you’d only see in factories. The sweatshop is the place where the students spend a bulk of the semester working on their final projects (good case in point: the C-clamp that we mentioned in one of our previous posts – which was by the way 100% man-made).

Now you may be thinking, “Why are students working on such heavy machinery? What does that have to do with their studies?” Well actually, Dualtech firmly believes in the Dual Training system, which is a balance of classroom teaching and practical application. Cool, right?

Stay glued for out succeeding posts! Here’s a teaser, it has something to do with money! Woohoo!

On Values...

Values are lost these days. We hear news about being unethical in their jobs and towards other people. But then, we all know that values formation is really important in our lives.

Despite the fact that students of DualTech have a lot of extensive things to do, DualTech really pays attention to values formation through having classes focusing on it. During their free time, students of DualTech don’t waste their time—they practice serving at mass at their chapel. No wonder these students value every time and value their work at their heavy-duty work stations.

Just a Reflection...

You say “I’m OP (Out of Place)” when:

1. Your parents are using their secret language.
2. Your cousins are updating each other about their favorite series.
3. Your brothers or your guy friends talk about video games
4. You’re the only one among your friends who does not know how to play cards.
5. You’re the only one who has not watched the movie everyone is talking about.

We can list more out-of-place experiences with our friends or relatives. But we are sure that all of these are simple and they just happen once in a while. But come to think of it...Millions of Filipino youth are OP because of one (not really simple) reason:

They are not in school.

While we are studying everyday, they are just loitering or wandering—so much time are wasted when there are so much lessons to learn. They cannot just approach anyone and ask for proper education that their unfortunate (mostly irresponsible) parents cannot give—we all know, it’s not that easy.

Good thing, there is such school as Dual Tech. They make sure that these people never feel out of place ever again.

What do you think?

Tuesday Escapade

Once upon a time, five students went on a journey that would turn out to be a very humbling one. Already up and about by around 8 in the morning, they braved the long traffic and winding streets of Binondo just to reach their destination. Have an idea where they went? Give yourself a pat on the back if you guessed Dualtech, because you guessed right! Located in the heart of Binondo, Manila, the second branch of Dualtech -- the main campus being in Canlubang -- was a small building of about 6 floors (wait till you see the pictures, they’re awesome). The contents of the building didn’t really differ from that of any other school -- they had classrooms, a computer lab, and even a mini chapel. But what made them different from the lot were their heavy-duty work stations.

Dualtech believes in a very hand-on type of education, which is why they were recognized as the pioneer of the DUAL TRAINING SYSTEM, which in essence is “learning while doing”. Don’t believe us? Their training system was even acknowledged by former President Ramos under the RA7686.

With all that, the little escapade of the UA&P students was indeed an enriching experience. It was just so enlightening to see how things worked in their world. Even if they were busy with their work, they still greeted us warmly and answered all our questions regardless of how serious or how silly they were.

[Watch out for our succeeding posts – we have more exciting stuff to tell you about like the amazing people we met, the “sweat shop” and other neat things!]

Mission Possible!

In our last post, we talked about Dualtech's mission. Now, we will talk about how that mission is being fulfilled!

It's interesting how Dualtech started out as a social development program to help alleviate poverty in the Philippines. And for 2 decades, they have continuously tried to help alleviate poverty in the Philippines by providing vocational education to high school graduates. These male high school graduates come from poor families, and are given a scholarship or assistance. And as seen in the past few posts, these students get to be employed even before they graduate!

In other words, DualTech helps others help themselves. As the famous Chinese Proverb says:

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

A New Year Mission!

A new year, a new beginning! Opportunities abound at times like these, and we here at the University of Asia and the Pacific always strike while the iron is hot! Therefore, we would like to start the new year by sharing with you, our dear readers, the mission of DualTech! And it goes something like this:

"We aim to contribute to the common good by developing people through the dual training system to be quality-trained, skilled, productive, enlightened and morally upright persons fulfilling the needs of industry and the community we serve."

Start the year with a good deed! YOU can help fulfill this mission by supporting DualTech!

Support this blog and support DualTech... Support DualTech and support their students. Support the DualTech students and eliminate poverty in the Philippines!!

Getting to Know DualTech

Up until now, we haven't really blogged about what DualTech really is and what makes it so special from the rest of the vocational schools out there. So let's all get to know DualTech a little more!

DualTech is a private vocational school for boys. It's been around since 1982, and get this: it trains over a thousand scholars from the poor sectors of the country each year! Not only that, it has partnered up with several companies like Nestle Philippines, Honda Cars Philippines, Inc., and Boeing Material Handling Corporation. Partnering with such big companies only means that the students get employed upon graduation!

So what makes DualTech different from the rest? DualTech students are trained to be skilled workers with personal formation. These students not only know how to work, they work with work ethics. Thus, when they get employed, the DualTech students bring to the company the culture of excellence they acquired from their Alma Mater. Pretty cool huh?

And that in a nutshell is DualTech! What do you think would the Philippines be like if DualTech never existed?

A Christmas Graduation! (Part 2) Now with Pictures!

The DualTech Seal: "Virtus et Laborem", Virtue and Work. This is exactly what Dualtech instills in its students.

The graduates of DualTech as they patiently await for their diplomas.

Congratulations guys! You did it! great job!

A Christmas Graduation! (Part 1)

I went to UA&P last Saturday, thinking that it was just like any normal Saturday that we IMC-SDL students usually have i.e. have class from morning 'til night. Until, somebody came up to me and said, "Some school's having their graduation at Dizon Auditorium!!" I was like, "Really?! what school?" Then she told me, to my surprise, "It's DualTech!! Let's go watch!!"

And so we did! It was so surreal! My friend and I were all smiles as we saw all these students in their toga, walking up the stage to get their diploma... and get this: As they got their diplomas, the announcer would say something like this, " (name of student) would be reporting to Colgate-Palmolive (in a few months time)" It's so cool! They already have jobs even before their graduation!

I can just imagine the joy and happiness they would have this Christmas. Wouldn't you want to have your graduation on Christmas as well?

(more to come... wait 'til you see their pictures!)

YOU GOTTA FIGHT, FOR YOUR RIGHT, TO PARTYYYY STUDY!!

At one point in time, we were all thrown the line “study hard, party harder”. As partying IS a pivotal part of any sane students life (as a means of releasing stress, forgetting problems, and what have you), we should feel blessed that we actually have the opportunity to study, by treating it with the same amount of importance and responsibility as we do our partying. “But why study when we were born SMART?” you would probably say with a smirk on your face. According to something I read way way back, education is important because:

1. It is a basic human right
2. It is a catalyst for human development
3. It improves one’s quality of life, and
4. It is vital for economic development and political stability

We may not be aware of it, but hundreds and thousands of kids our age don’t have the chance at the same kind of education that we do. Yup, that's right. They’re all either stuck in a string of odd-end jobs or finding other means of survival. That’s the beauty of schools like DUALTECH – it gives young men the opportunity of a better life since they offer a wide range of courses and fields of study that are sure to land them an awesome job once they hit that podium sporting their toga and matching diploma. And get this – all students enrolled are on full scholarship. That means: a good and extremely decent education without them having to shell out a single centavo. Now known for producing many successful graduates, there is no doubt that the people responsible for putting up DUALTECH are glad they invested in the education of these individuals! Kudos to you all!