Project News

On July 19, three welding teachers and two industry linkage coordinators of San Pedro Relocation Center National High School (SPRCNHS) visited Babcock-Hitachi Philippines Inc. (BHPI) in order to learn industry needs in the field of welding and discuss the industry-school partnership. Munetoshi Ishida, an Industry Linkage Expert of JICA Project Team escorted the group of visitors. BHPI, located in the Municipality of Bauan, Batangas, is the acknowledged frontrunner in manufacturing of boiler components. Their products include pressure parts and non-pressure parts for Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG), power boilers and industrial boilers.

In the welding course at senior high school level of SPRCNHS, only one welding process is taught, which is called shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). Due to the simplicity of its equipment and operation, SMAW is one of the most popular welding processes. On the other hand, BHPI draws fully upon a variety of welding processes, such as tungsten inert gas welding and submerged arc welding so as to produce high standard boiler components. Therefore, BHPI presents itself as a supreme setting for the welding teachers to learn how different welding processes are turned into products. As SPRCNHS plans to offer an additional welding process to its high school students in the near future, it was a good opportunity for welding teachers to reaffirm the advantage of teaching their students about different welding processes. The visit also concluded with an agreement about the continuing partnership between BHPI and SPRCNHS in the future. It is in this context that the JICA Project Team encourages SPRCNHS and other Pilot Schools to undertake more often the industry visits to know better what schools can and should offer to their students before sending them to the real world.

Industry immersion is one effective means to increase the knowledge and motivation of teachers at Technical Vocational High Schools. Particularly so it is in the Philippines where the teachers are not very experienced in actual work of industry settings. The enhancement of skills and knowledge of the teachers is a critical component of the improvement of technical vocational training. The Project shall continue to assist the pilot schools' efforts of reaching out to the industry.