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Joji Ilagan schools to run on new corporate manual that promotes professionalism

 

Joji Ilagan-Bian, founder of the institution, said the corporate manual will serve as a guidebook for educators and staff serving the foundation. With the implementation of the corporate manual, Ms. Bian is confident that her schools will be able to increase their revenues by at least 10% in the next five years.

"Our annual goal is to increase our revenue by 10%-20%," she added.

"It took us one year to prepare our corporate manual," said Ms. Bian, noting Chona A. Evangelista, a corporate consultant and former chairperson of the Mechanical Engineering Board, was behind the drafting of the manual.

Ms. Evangelista said one particular feature the corporate manual has is it will help the Bian-run schools to come up with a systematic recruitment mechanism that will help raise their standards.

"We (the schools) will not just recruit and recruit, as we will help our teachers achieve a certain level of standards that will make them better as teachers," she explained. Because of the manual, the schools will then seek the "accreditation of their programs" to make them "centers of excellence," Ms. Bian added.

While the courses of these schools are recognized by the Commission on Higher Education and other government bodies tasked to supervise education, she said it is different from an accreditation system as the latter allows the schools to be their own because they have achieved a certain level of independence. As centers of excellence, she added, the schools will provide their students "value for their money."

Ms. Bian’s foundation runs several schools such as

• the Joji Ilagan College of Business and Tourism which is into offering hotel and restaurant and other related courses;
• The Joji Ilagan-Bian Welding School which is offering internationally recognized welding courses;
• The Institute of International Culinary and Hospitality Entrepreneurship; the General Santos City-based JIB International School of Hotel and Tourism Management;
• Tumble Tots-Philippines for pre-schoolers;
• and the Six Eleven Global Services that trains those who want to work in call centers.

Aside from the accreditation from government agencies, the schools will also seek the recognition of international bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization, although some of the schools are already recognized.

Ms. Bian justified that while these schools offer pricey courses, they also provide their students with education that are at par, or even better, than some of the big universities in the country.

"We are not only providing our students with better education, but we also are preparing them with necessary tools that will make them either better employees or entrepreneurs," she told BusinessWorld.

"Education is a high form of investment," said Ms. Bian, once the chairperson of the Mindanao Business Council and leader of several business-related associations. -- Carmelito Q. Francisco

 

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