I.T.

In the Mountains

An impossible dream…
Mountain Province…what comes to
your mind?

 Where is it? “ I cannot even find it on the

map?”
 Aaah, Baguio City?
 Oooh, the Igorots?
Images… Mountain Province

 Amusing
 Pity
 Images…Mountain Province
 No malice in the way
we dress
Images…Mountain Province
 Oh my God! Child
labor!
 Images…Mountain Province
 But folks, all these
pictures of my
ancestors were taken
by American
Anthropologist Albert
Jenks in the 1930s.
 So where would I.T. fit In?
 Nobody was
interested to set up
an IT school in this
part of the world
considering the
risks, the nature of
the investment
area
 The enterprising spirit…
 XIJEN Institute
Technology came
into the fore to fill
the gap in I.T.
skills for the
modern day Igorot
 Patience, Perseverance
 Starting with two
computers in 1992,
XiJEN Institute of
Technology blazed
the I.T. trail despite
the difficulties from
financing to gaining
acceptance in the
community
 XiJEN
 Xi- from the Greek
alphabet in honor of
Greece’s contribution
to civilization
 Jen- combination of
the founders Joel and
Helen
 Work required waking
up at 4A.M. and to
bed at 12:00 Midnight
You’re only a vocational school!
 The local community
college did not even
recognize the skills of
our students. The
subjects they took in
our school were not
credited…despite our
course registrations
with TESDA
 We tried everything
 It was a challenge to
prove our worth to the
community
 The local college required
us to submit our syllabus
and we did….nothing
happened until
eventually, students were
allowed without the
knowledge of the school
administration, it was a
cat and mouse game
 Why in the first place…?
“because the students
of the local
community college
want to take up
computer subjects in
our school the thing is
the school
administration was
making it difficult for
them to do so…”
 Silver Lining…many firsts
 Undaunted, we were
the first school in the
province to have
Internet access,
integrate it into our
subjects and offer
public Internet access
to the community
using a VSAT system
 Extraordinary
 One of our Secretarial
students was hired in
the Attorney’s office
where she had her
OJT even before she
graduated
 Innovations
 We were the first to
create a website for
Mountain Province
 Provided Internet
access and served as
a mini ISP in the
community making
online services
possible among
government offices
 Customer driven..
In the early days of Internet
access our system was to
dial a long distance
number
We prepared a proposal to
Infocom to consider
coming up with a number
similar to a 1-800 number
thus providing enabling
Internet access even in
far places
 In a few years
 PLDT came up with
it’s VIBES service
using a number you
can dial without
incurring long
distance charges
 Human resource…the best
resource
We vowed to
advocate
computer
literacy
….training
government
workers,
teachers, the
out-of-school
youth, college
graduates
To help graduates get employed
 We do a graduate job
search assistance
program, one of our
student a high school
teacher was employed
because of her computer
skills
 We integrate small
business
management/entrepreneu
rship in our courses to
encourage our graduates
to set up their own
businesses
 Probably the only school
 We are probably the
only school that limits
its enrollment based
on the estimated
capacity of the job
market to absorb our
graduates
 Computer to the Barrios
 Our outreach program
is to provide computer
literacy advocacy in
remote barangay high
schools
 We are now serving
four (4) high schools
benefiting at most
3500 students since
the start of the
program
 No mountain high enough!
 Roads that cannot be
reached by trucks…then
carry the computers.
The barrio kid will have
the chance to learn about
computers.
 No money to pay the
monthly P250.00 fee?
Then find a sponsor and
that’s what we did!
 Benches will do…
 XIJEN Computer
Technicians do
carpentry work
converting
bookshelves to
computer tables
(Computer to the
Barrios program)
 Even the farmer’s children
 We have so much
interest in learning
 We have a good
command of the
English Language
 Education has been
with us for almost a
hundred years
 My Dreams…
 To let the world know
that we have the skills
and capabilities to
perform in the field of
I.T.
 That Mountain
Province will be the
I.T. services hub of
Northern Luzon
 To keep on
improving, updating..
 It is indeed a unique….
 A unique business
formula, a business
with a social
conscience …this
business can survive
even in the hardest of
times
 For one..
 Offer an affordable tuition fee, our two year
courses charge P6,500 per semester
 No compromise on quality of instruction
 Sensitivity to the needs of the local industry (we
try to focus first on the needs of the locality then
train our guns outside our area of operations)
 Aim for graduates to be employers and not
employees (encourage the enterprising spirit)
 Our aspirations…
 To partner with I.T.
hardware suppliers
who can provide
computers at
affordable costs, we
have already
partnered with MSI
Digiland, PC Bodega
but our doors are
open to other I.T.
suppliers
 Our Aspirations
 To link with vendors
and help develop
vendor specific skills
among students our
options are open
 Our aspirations
 We can be an area
for outsourcing jobs
 We are trainable in
animation, data
services, others, we
can explore this
together
Why outsourcing in the rural areas?
 Conducive work
environment
 Why outsource with us?
 Some of those
who work in
outsourcing
centers in
Baguio and
Manila come
from Mountain
Province
 Why us?
 Technology has
broken barriers/
boundaries..
 We are a
landlocked
province we can
be a test case for
similar operations
in Western nations
with the same
environmental
conditions
Explore e-commerce
 We shall heavily rely
on the Internet to
market our products
to the world
 Come, explore let’s seek …
 Explore opportunities
with us
 Dream and put the
dream into reality with
us
 We are committed
 We have the
experience
 We have the vision
 We have the hope
 After all..
 We were in the worst
situations and
survived…
 The ‘warrior’ spirit …
 still lives in us but we
are putting it not into
violence but in
developing the
abilities to make it…