THIS year, we witnessed the Panagbenga (Flower Festival) season in Baguio. We would not want to miss the fascinating dance parades and attractive floats and the week-long Session Road in Bloom where a great mass of humanity flock the whole street to enjoy the variety of foods and other interesting buys it offers.
It was also during this time when we visited a newly-established Forest House Assessment and Training Center or FHATCI. FHATCI is a TESDA-accredited center that offers trainings and assessments to learners who would like to be nationally-certified. Our visit was very timely as we were told that the TESDA Director General Secretary Isidro Lapena, PhD, CSEE just awarded FHATCI, through its owner, Raquel F. Verzosa, a Cer-tificate of TVET Program Registration (CTPR). This is the first and only training center to be awarded by the Director General himself.
We were amazed by the pleasant training rooms that seem to be very conducive to learning where Ms. Verzosa herself assesses the candidates to be-come competent and obtain a national certificate (NCII/ NCIII). An NCII/NCIII is a document that is significant in applying for a job as it serves as proof that the candidate is skilled in specific job skills.
She offers varied qualifications under the tourism sector such as Front Office Services NCII, Housekeeping Services NCII, Food & Beverage Services NCII, Events Management NCIII, Tourism Promotion Services NCII, Tour Guiding Services NCII, Travel Services NCII and Customer Services NCII.
What impressed us is the fact that even in its infancy stage as a training center, FHATCI has offered help to others. “During the destructive typhoon Ompong, Itogon was hit badly. Many residents lost their homes, their livelihood and even their loved ones. I thought of helping their community by giving them free trainings on Customer Service so that they can at least apply for work after the training. I talked to many establishments and asked if they could help employ them after they get trained. We trained a total of 120 Itogon victims and fortunately 90% of them were employed after. It was a very fulfilling and heartwarming event as I saw despair turned into hope and there was a clear trace of resilience”.
This is where PILIPINO Mirror decided to invite Ms. Verzosa to join us as a columnist. In the next few weeks, Ms.Verzosa will share her knowledge about work etiquette, business etiquette, professionalism, personal packaging, image, attitude, and many others. All these will be related to work, hence, the column will be entitled People @Work.
Ms. Verzosa is an author of four hospitality and tourism books, an educator, a business mentor for DTI Mentor Me Program, a training consultant, seminar leader, resource speaker aside from being a TESDA-accredited assessor and trainer for tourism and entrepreneurship qualifications. We believe she will be a great addition to our team who can inspire our readers.
She is the owner of the famous restaurant in Baguio City, the ‘Forest House Bistro and Café’, the only restaurant in Baguio that has been awarded by Philippine Tatler as one of Philippines’ Best for twelve consecutive years. She also worked in Philippine Airlines as flight attendant for 10 years and shares this training directly to her staff in the hotel and restaurants that they own. Her family has been in the service industry not only in the city of pines but also in Subic, SBMA.
After PAL, the family went back to Baguio to put up other businesses. She has been residing in this beautiful city for almost 20 years. In Saint Louis University, she took up Masters in Language Education and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2011. To add to her milestones, she was awarded this month as one of 2019’s Baguio’s Outstanding Women Leaders. She is a mother of five and the wife of another well-sought speaker, Ari Verzosa.
As per Ms. Verzosa, “I have passion for teaching and for educating others; I believe, I am able to reach out to many people thru my books and articles. I certainly would like to inspire as many people as I could”.
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