The Philippine Nazarene College has partnered with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-Cordillera in offering certificate programs to 1,000 young people who want to boost Benguet’s coffee industry.
Dubbed “Farm to Cup” program or F2C, PNC is poised to offer three new courses: the coffee nursery operation level II with 270 hours required; coffee production level II with 300 hours; and barista NC II with 178 hours.
Farm to Cup Manager Eli Natividad said they initially thought of planting portions of the 4.5-hectare campus lot with coffee trees.
“We just planned to plant, produce, sell and brew because we are planning to set up a coffee shop here at that time. And that’s the concept, from farming to brewing and selling coffee beans and selling different products of coffee,” Natividad said.
PNC Technical Vocational Institute Director Melvin Olicia said the program, which was planned eight months ago, started with the school’s desire to train individuals, especially the youth to appreciate coffee production.
“PNC is a Bible school, not an agricultural school but we found out the need of the community,” Olicia said.
From there, PNC has partnered with Tesda for its scholarship programs as well as the various local government units of Benguet through its different municipal agriculture offices, with the goal of educating 1,000 youth in a year.
Olicia said their F2C offered courses, which will start this April are designed so that learners would not only appreciate the coffee as a product but how it is planted, harvested, roasted, brewed and served.
Also, he said the learners are given competencies through the certificates, which they can use in their own localities or even when they decide to be employed abroad.
Olicia said they are still in the process of crafting the final program of the F2C, which is the coffee management.
PNC has also linked with other government agencies such as Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Science and Technology to assist their graduates in whatever field they chose to apply their learning.
PNC President Allan Prado said the campus has facilities that will cater to the needs of the learners such as the 2 .5-hectare lot set up for coffee nursery and for other agricultural purposes and the newly-launched coffee shop where the barista course would be taught.
Prado led the F2C program launching on March 16, which was participated by Tesda Deputy Director General for Partnership and Linkages Aniceto Bertiz III, Tesda-Cordillera Director Dante Navarro and Tesda Baguio-Benguet Director Elizabeth Manio and other stakeholders from the municipalities.
The full scholarship courses backed by Tesda are open to all interested learners 18 years old and above.
For more information contact PNC at 074-620-4664 or email at [email protected] or visit their Facebook account at Philippine Nazarene College or visit them at Pico Road, La Trinidad. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 30, 2024
