San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is expanding the skills training program for workers in its P735-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) to benefit more provinces, not just Bulacan, SMC President Ramon S. Ang said Tuesday, Aug. 22.
The NMIA will create an estimated 20 million direct and indirect jobs, with an initial workforce of 10,000 to be hired from local communities in its Bulacan project site.
SMC has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) to expand their training partnership to more provinces to benefit a bigger number of Filipinos.
The SMC-TESDA program, which began in Bulacan, initially offered courses in heavy equipment operations, shielded metal arc welding, entrepreneurship training, electrical installation and maintenance, dressmaking, baking, and cookery.
Their partnership, which started in 2020, is now expanded to include Pangasinan, Laguna, and Palawan.
Initially, the training program only covered residents of Bulacan, Bataan, Batangas, Quezon Province, General Santos City, South Cotabato, and Davao del Sur.
“This is a great opportunity for many of our countrymen," according to Ang.
"The airport project and all our other projects, will not just generate jobs; they will provide knowledge, skills, and technology transfer in construction, engineering, the operation of equipment and technologies, ground handling, aircraft maintenance, and many other fields,” he explained.
“This gives our people a chance to learn highly-specialized skills right here in our country, while earning a decent living. Later on, they can bring these skills with them for better opportunities abroad, or continue working for us,” he added.
At the moment, SMC is working with over a hundred foreign experts in various fields at the airport project, currently in the first phase of construction--land redevelopment.
This is the process of turning what was once land converted into fishponds, back into land form again.
Filipinos working at the site are already learning from these foreign experts, and can be tapped to teach and pass on skills and knowledge to the next batches of workers to be trained by TESDA, and hired by SMC.
The SMC-TESDA program is also geared towards benefitting displaced workers, returning Overseas Filipino Workers, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and other qualified clients.