Ayala tries hand at education in Bicol

ENTRANCE to University of Nueva Caceres (UNC), Bicol’s oldest university, in Naga City. Ayala Corp., one of the country’s oldest conglomerates, has bought 60 percent of UNC shares. JUAN ESCANDOR JR.

IN BUYING into the oldest university in Bicol, University of Nueva Caceres (UNC), Ayala Corp., one of the country’s oldest conglomerates, embarks on a pioneering learning-by-doing approach and other practical strategies to education for college students.

According to Alfredo Imperial Ayala, chief executive officer of Ayala Education Inc., the conglomerate’s education investment arm, the approach and strategies designed into a curriculum under the new management would make UNC graduates more competitive in the job market and sensitive to the needs of industries.

Last week, the Makati-based Ayala Corp. bought for P450 million a 60-percent stake in the 67-year-old family-owned university in Naga City in Camarines Sur province, enabling it to hold the majority of the university’s board. UNC appointed Ayala (no relation to the Zobel de Ayala owners of the company) as its president.

Partnership

“We are delighted that Ayala Education is investing in UNC because we believe that it will help us to further enhance the quality of our education and the employability of our graduates, through industry and technology-driven innovations,” UNC chair Felicito Payumo said.

Payumo welcomed the subsidiary as “a partner who can strengthen UNC’s leading role in making good education accessible to Bicolanos.”

UNC, the first university in southern Luzon outside Manila, was founded in 1948 by Dr. Jaime Hernandez Sr., the first Filipino auditor general during the Commonwealth period and finance secretary during the administrations of Presidents Sergio Osmeña, Ramon Magsaysay and Carlos Garcia.

At present, it offers law, education, liberal arts, business and accountancy, engineering, architecture, nursing, and computer science, criminal justice, elementary and high school education, and graduate studies. It has 7,000 students studying on its 5-hectare campus in the old central business district of Naga City.

Ayala said the transformation of the college curriculum would take three years, with industry people providing their inputs on their experiences in working in the real world.

BPO lessons

“We will work backwards. We will start with the employers to tell us what they want, who they are going to hire, what skills they need. We will ask them (employers) for a joint venture to develop the curriculum,” he said.

Since 2012, Ayala Education has learned from business process outsourcing (BPO) firms how to train college students in service jobs. “It will be like a pilot trainee learning through flight simulation with the help of the computer,” Ayala said.

He said the so-called Professional Employment Program was developed to produce highly trained college graduates with 95-percent employment rate. According to him, the new curriculum at UNC would include English immersion, similar to the BPO training they have given to thousands of students now sought-after in the job market.

Ayala said the last semester of college graduating students, would be simulation of the real job, without lectures but more on solving problems based on given scenarios. “For example, a senior student will be given a recreated scenario in the banks where they would deal with different types of clients for them to give the best solution to their respective concerns,” he said.

New board

On July 28, some of the employees were surprised by the takeover by Ayala Education, which immediately proceeded to have a new board of trustees (BOT) elected. Joel Cresini, head of the publicity department of UNC, said he was told to immediately organize a press conference right after the meeting of the BOT and election of new corporate officials.

In a separate interview, Eduardo “Bong” Sison, a grandson of the UNC founder, said that based on the university’s stock and transfer book, Ayala Education owns five blocks of shares totaling 10,900, as of July 29. Ayala Corp. is still acquiring more shares, though this was yet to be finalized, Sison said.

Sison is stepping down as vice president for administration after Ayala Education representative, Eleonor S. Salumbre, was elected corporate treasurer and vice president for administration and finance on July 28.

With its 60-percent ownership of UNC shares, owned mostly by the four children of the university’s founder, Ayala Education will have five seats in the BOT, with the original owners retaining two.

“We are very happy to have found in Ayala Education, a partner who shares our values and commitment to nation building, and will ensure that my father’s vision and legacy are sustained and strengthened, and that UNC continues to be a key engine of progress and development in Naga and the Bicol region,” Jesus Hernandez said.

Ayala said: “UNC will be Ayala Education’s flagship university, and we are committed to working closely with all of UNC’s stakeholders to build upon its traditions of excellence that have served it so well.”