CERTIFIED welder Janice Requitillo. Photo by CRIS EVERT LATO
Fashionable and “kikay” (Filipino slang for a hip and trendy woman), Janice Requitillo, 24, does not look like someone who can endure intense heat while putting metal plates together.
But then, looks can be deceiving.
Requitillo is a certified welder after completing courses on shielded metal welding and pipe-fitting as a scholar of Pasar (Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp.) Foundation Inc. (PFI) and its partners.
She even considers metal and electricity as her best friends and prefers to be in a room full of welding electrodes, plates and pipes.
“The job of a welder is not easy. You work in a hot place. You have to be careful or else you get electrocuted. You wear heavy uniform to protect you. But I like it. This is the job that fits me,” said Requitillo, who has a year-old child named Sam Angela.
Requitillo and 37 other young people underwent training from July 2011 to February 2012 and graduated on March 8 in a ceremony graced by Pasar and local officials. They are now working in the five service agencies of the company.
Requitillo took an education course at a university in Cebu in 2009. “But instead of paying tuition and going to school, I spent the money in malls,” she recalled, laughing.
Her parents brought her back home to Isabel, Leyte, and urged her to enroll in a computer technician’s course.
“I didn’t like it. I dropped out. I am a rebel. And then, I got pregnant which I kept from my parents until I gave birth,” she said.
Requitillo, however, realized that she must find a job to support her daughter.
She was working part time at the Isabel municipal hall when she learned about Pasar welding scholarship from Jennifer Francisco, skills training supervisor of the administrative office.
“I told her I can do it and here I am now,” Requitillo said.
The training lasted seven months. Eleven of the scholars were women—a conscious decision of PFI to give equal opportunity to men and women, according to executive director Ruben Cajigas.
Most of the scholars are children of Pasar employees and out-of-school youths, all residents of Isabel.
Classes were held on the local campus of Visayan State University. The instructors are experts who are members of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers.
The municipal government helped screen the participants while the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority ensured that the skills of the trainees pass the needs and standards of the industry.
The project was implemented under the Strategic Corporate-Community Partnership for Local Development (Scope) program of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Philippine Business for Social Progress. The Scope program cofunded the project.
“This is very inspiring. These young people would have lived wasted lives without the project. Now they have means of income as they are equipped with the skills,” said Francisco, the municipal officer.
The scholars have been assigned to the different areas of the smelter, acid and power plants. However, two of the women—Leonora Roque and Herelyn Bentoy—who are both in their 20s, do not have any plan of staying on as Pasar employees but are looking forward to have their own shops.
Their experience during the plant turnaround and maintenance in October last year gave them a preview of what the job entails.
“It is not easy. That is why I am proud of myself and the job that I do. I will use what I learn so I can help my siblings. To the youth, I say, we should never quit,” Roque said. Cris Evert B. Lato, Isabel, Leyte