TMP Tech: Finding new careers from out of the ordinary decisions
Published Apr 9, 2023 08:33 am
Life, as they say, is full of surprises. Sometimes the surprise is a pleasant diversion. Other times, it leads to a completely different career path uncovering technical skills.
Two people who made choices that were out of the ordinary and uncharacteristic of what they had planned are Kathleen Claire Abad, 24, and Melvin P. Lunar, 43.
Kathleen had just finished junior high and planned to take a medical course when she graduates senior high school. Meanwhile, she needed to find a vocational course in line with the new K-to-12 education system.
Melvin was managing a family bakeshop, helping a sibling with his store, and along the way, also tried to start his own business. He needed to learn a skill to either get a job, or set up another business, to support his wife and four children.
*Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) School of Technology, Inc. (TMP Tech website)*
Both found themselves enrolling at the TMP Tech for a course in Automotive Servicing.
TMP Tech is the Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) School of Technology, Inc. which started operations in 2013, offering various courses on the different aspects of automotive servicing. Its aim: to provide excellent technical education that would make it the source of talent for the Toyota global network and for similar businesses.
As of June 2022, 1,741 graduates have stepped out of that school, some 1,500 employed by Toyota dealers and affiliates in the Philippines and abroad. The rest had set up their own automotive servicing businesses.
*Kathleen Abad*
In the first two weeks of class, Kathleen said she had a “large question mark on my face while majority of the class was able to relate to the lectures due to their background and passion for the subject.”
She began to question her decision because she could not understand a single thing. And her mother had been against that decision. Compounding her problem was that she had to take an online Senior High School education simultaneously due to a DepEd requirement. (She later pursued a distance learning education program and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in May 2019.)
After she completed the two-year General Job Automotive Servicing Course in 2017, which included an eight-month on-the-job training, Kathleen was accepted at TMP’s Customer Service Operations, Marketing Division in 2017. There, the woman who planned to take a medical course bloomed into a customer management trainer.
*Kathleen Abad conducting a training seminar for Toyota staff.*
“As a customer management trainer, I am part of the team who develops training modules and programs, and conducts timely and relevant training courses to our dealer after-sales personnel. We cater mostly to service advisors, maintenance reminder and appointment staff, job controllers, parts staff, and in-house trainers.”
“The training courses range from personality development and mindset building, to basic automotive know-how and product knowledge. The automotive knowledge and experience that I gained from TMP Tech helped me in conducting technical training courses to our service advisors and parts staff,” she said.
Deepening her understanding of the automobile was her exposure to the company’s provincial and regional skills competition. She was awarded the “Best in Engine System” and “Best in Drive Train System.” When Kathleen graduated, she was cited as the “Most Outstanding Student and Silver Medalist.”
*Melvin P. Lunar*
He graduated with the recognition of “Most Outstanding Student and Bronze Medalist.” At the Skills Olympics, Melvin bagged the following awards: Best in Underchassis System, Best in Auto Electrical System, and Best in Drive Train System.
Since all courses include many months on-the-job (OJT) training, Melvin was assigned to Lexus Manila. After graduation in 2015, he was offered a job there.
“Working at Lexus was a big opportunity so when they offered me a job, I gladly accepted it,” he said. He started work at Lexus Manila in 2015 and from 2020 to 2022, he worked as workshop supervisor.
The pandemic, though, came and affected his earnings from the job and his personal business. He decided to find work abroad and an employment agency found one for him at Melbourne City Lexus. He said he felt “honored and blessed” to have been offered that job. He started work there in September 2022.
“Before I enrolled at TMP Tech, I was struggling with my business. After I got the job at Lexus, little by little, I started to recover. Now after a few months in Melbourne City Lexus, my financial condition is better. But the hardest part was leaving my family.”
He said the job in Melbourne is not very different from what he was doing in Manila. “With the knowledge and skills I gained from TMP Tech and the job experience in Lexus Manila, I can say that working here is not hard.”
“At Lexus Manila, we used to call ourselves ‘generalists’ because we had to do whatever job was assigned to us. It’s the same thing here, we encounter all types of jobs,” he said.
Gaspar is a product of tech-voc education, a graduate of industrial technician program in automotive from the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati in 1989. He was employed by TMP in 1989.
*Ronald Gaspar, AVP and operations manager, TMP Foundation*
“Technical courses like automotive servicing with the level of training of TMP Tech, presents a lot of opportunities for young men for employment here and abroad with respectable salaries. This decade offers opportunities to fill up the demand for blue- collar jobs like automotive servicing to fill up the big requirements in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Middle East countries and Singapore, among others,” he said.
TMP Tech is located in Santa Rosa City, Laguna. It offers regular courses under TESDA training regulations, short or capsulized auto repair courses, and Japanese language courses.
Kathleen had just finished junior high and planned to take a medical course when she graduates senior high school. Meanwhile, she needed to find a vocational course in line with the new K-to-12 education system.
Melvin was managing a family bakeshop, helping a sibling with his store, and along the way, also tried to start his own business. He needed to learn a skill to either get a job, or set up another business, to support his wife and four children.
*Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) School of Technology, Inc. (TMP Tech website)*
Both found themselves enrolling at the TMP Tech for a course in Automotive Servicing.
TMP Tech is the Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) School of Technology, Inc. which started operations in 2013, offering various courses on the different aspects of automotive servicing. Its aim: to provide excellent technical education that would make it the source of talent for the Toyota global network and for similar businesses.
As of June 2022, 1,741 graduates have stepped out of that school, some 1,500 employed by Toyota dealers and affiliates in the Philippines and abroad. The rest had set up their own automotive servicing businesses.
Kathleen Abad: Zero knowledge on auto subject
But for Kathleen, the course was way out of her world; it would just satisfy a requirement. “At that time, there were uncertainties regarding the implementation of the K-12 curriculum. Our batch was mandated to undergo Senior High School first, before we can apply for college. While my parents and I were searching for SHS strands on the internet, we came across TMP Tech. I had zero knowledge on the automotive subject back then, but I’d have nothing to lose if I tried it out.”
*Kathleen Abad*
In the first two weeks of class, Kathleen said she had a “large question mark on my face while majority of the class was able to relate to the lectures due to their background and passion for the subject.”
She began to question her decision because she could not understand a single thing. And her mother had been against that decision. Compounding her problem was that she had to take an online Senior High School education simultaneously due to a DepEd requirement. (She later pursued a distance learning education program and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in May 2019.)
After she completed the two-year General Job Automotive Servicing Course in 2017, which included an eight-month on-the-job training, Kathleen was accepted at TMP’s Customer Service Operations, Marketing Division in 2017. There, the woman who planned to take a medical course bloomed into a customer management trainer.
*Kathleen Abad conducting a training seminar for Toyota staff.*
“As a customer management trainer, I am part of the team who develops training modules and programs, and conducts timely and relevant training courses to our dealer after-sales personnel. We cater mostly to service advisors, maintenance reminder and appointment staff, job controllers, parts staff, and in-house trainers.”
“The training courses range from personality development and mindset building, to basic automotive know-how and product knowledge. The automotive knowledge and experience that I gained from TMP Tech helped me in conducting technical training courses to our service advisors and parts staff,” she said.
Deepening her understanding of the automobile was her exposure to the company’s provincial and regional skills competition. She was awarded the “Best in Engine System” and “Best in Drive Train System.” When Kathleen graduated, she was cited as the “Most Outstanding Student and Silver Medalist.”
Melvin P. Lunar: From bakeshop to auto servicing
For Melvin who enrolled in 2013, the Automotive Servicing course was related to his love for cars. “It’s been my dream to have my own auto repair shop and being knowledgeable in this field would be the key to build this dream,” he said.
*Melvin P. Lunar*
He graduated with the recognition of “Most Outstanding Student and Bronze Medalist.” At the Skills Olympics, Melvin bagged the following awards: Best in Underchassis System, Best in Auto Electrical System, and Best in Drive Train System.
Since all courses include many months on-the-job (OJT) training, Melvin was assigned to Lexus Manila. After graduation in 2015, he was offered a job there.
“Working at Lexus was a big opportunity so when they offered me a job, I gladly accepted it,” he said. He started work at Lexus Manila in 2015 and from 2020 to 2022, he worked as workshop supervisor.
The pandemic, though, came and affected his earnings from the job and his personal business. He decided to find work abroad and an employment agency found one for him at Melbourne City Lexus. He said he felt “honored and blessed” to have been offered that job. He started work there in September 2022.
“Before I enrolled at TMP Tech, I was struggling with my business. After I got the job at Lexus, little by little, I started to recover. Now after a few months in Melbourne City Lexus, my financial condition is better. But the hardest part was leaving my family.”
He said the job in Melbourne is not very different from what he was doing in Manila. “With the knowledge and skills I gained from TMP Tech and the job experience in Lexus Manila, I can say that working here is not hard.”
“At Lexus Manila, we used to call ourselves ‘generalists’ because we had to do whatever job was assigned to us. It’s the same thing here, we encounter all types of jobs,” he said.
TMP Tech
Ronald Gaspar, AVP and operations manager, TMP Foundation, describes TMP Tech as having the “potential to be the “Harvard University” of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) or tech-voc . Aside from TESDA courses it can offer Toyota Technical Education for Automotive Mastery for the 21st Century (TEAM 21), a global automotive certification course developed by Toyota as a non- training regulated course.”Gaspar is a product of tech-voc education, a graduate of industrial technician program in automotive from the Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati in 1989. He was employed by TMP in 1989.
*Ronald Gaspar, AVP and operations manager, TMP Foundation*
“Technical courses like automotive servicing with the level of training of TMP Tech, presents a lot of opportunities for young men for employment here and abroad with respectable salaries. This decade offers opportunities to fill up the demand for blue- collar jobs like automotive servicing to fill up the big requirements in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Middle East countries and Singapore, among others,” he said.
TMP Tech is located in Santa Rosa City, Laguna. It offers regular courses under TESDA training regulations, short or capsulized auto repair courses, and Japanese language courses.