Eskwela De Los Mataderos Accredited Tesda Courses

Eskwela De Los Mataderos is an institution accredited by TESDA that offers Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programs (TVET) under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Vigan’s Eskwela de los Mataderos continues to produce world class butchers. This is in line with the city’s vision to train its residents and other persons interested to acquire skills in order to become globally competitive. In cooperation with TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) which provides scholarship grants to participants, the City Government of Vigan through the Eskwela de los Mataderos has recently paid tribute to its 5th batch of graduates. These certified butchers can easily be employed locally or work abroad where there is great demand for this kind of job.

Eskwela De Los Mataderos

Address: Brgy. 5, Vigan City, Philippines
Phone #: 09171520219

How It Begun

Executive No. 10 Series of 1998 ,creating the Labor Assistance Office and Organizing the Technology and Manpower Enhancement Advisory Board of Vigan was signed by Mayor Eva Marie S Medina laid the groundwork for the city’s skills and manpower program. In the succeeding days, Biguenos saw the snowballing of numerous trainings to equip them with tools to enable them to improve their standard of living. It also paved the way for the establishment of the Eskwela de los Mataderos ( School of Butchers) in March 2007.

Eskwela de los Mataderos was conceptualized by the City Planning Office in 2006 when they were tasked by the Chief Executive to search for jobs that Biguenos can apply for. The search engines directed the office “Slaughtering Jobs ” thus the Eskwela de los Mataderos.

City Government Builds the Ship Of Opportunity

With the school, the city government saw the bright prospects for the people of Vigan and how it can maximize the use of the city’s slaughterhouse

Professionalizing the Skill

The city government sought the assistance of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). TESDA provincial director, Mrs. Gemma Rendon enthusiastically offered the Slaughtering Curriculum, which to this day is being used by the trainers. The curriculum required an attendance of two hundred eighty (280) hours of actual training, both classroom and hands-on, which when completed is equivalent to two (2) months.

This innovative practice is a joint undertaking with TESDA. It was with TESDA that the school was originally registered and approved at its regional office with Desiderius Martinez as program manager. Then Mayor Ferdi Medina gave his full support to all the needs of the project. The necessary tools and equipment were purchased by the city government and the personnel required were designated.

The teaching methodology of the school includes lecture and hands-on trainings on the global methods and processes of slaughtering. It does away with the environmental hazards and poor sanitation of the traditional methods and processes of slaughtering paving the way for global standards. The General Education Courses in the curriculum inculcates behavioral patterns consistent with good personal hygiene for a clean and safe slaughtering methods

The Pioneer Batch of Professional Butchers

The school formally opened on March 26, 2007 with sixteen (16) qualified students from the provinces of Region 1. Applicants to the program underwent screening where they were determined: – to be physically and mentally fit, – at least High School graduate; of good moral character, and with a minimum of six months experience in slaughtering cattle or hog.

On June 26, 2007, the first batch of professional butchers graduated.They are now butchers at par with their international counterparts. Of these sixteen strong men, one has gone and joined his wife in Canadaas a butcher. Another is applying the skills acquired in his own slaughtering business. He is now the official supplier of pork at theUniversity of Northern Philippines canteen. The rest are employed in the different abattoirs in the region, waiting for their deployment abroad.

Objectives

Basically, Eskwela de los Mataderos was born with the objective of establishing a training ground for world class butchers. The training curriculum aims to equip individuals with the knowledge, skills and attitude in modern abattoir operations promoting health and safety awareness in the profession. The professionalization of the skill will produce local butchers that are at par with their foreign counterparts, making them employable in any slaughterhouse in the world. Not only that, the program will also provide a sanitary source of Vigan’s prime products, bagnet and longanisa. Ultimately, the program will redoundto the upliftment of the quality of life of the people.

Strategies

Coming up with world-class manpower is not a task that can be taken too lightly. The exercise entails not only time and effort, but also taxpayers’ money. To ensure the success of the program, the city government, through its program manager adapted certain strategies.

1. CAPABILITY ENHANCEMENT. Initially, two skilled Bigueno butchers were sent by the City Government of Vigan to theAnimal Products Development Center at Marulas, ValenzuelaCity on July 17-29, 2006 to represent Vigan for the Trainers’ Training on Slaughtering Hogs and Cattle. The 13-day training enhanced the slaughtering skills of the two Biguenos. They were introduced to the mechanized method of slaughtering, doing away with the traditional knife and bolo method of killing and cutting up an animal.
2. NETWORKING AND ESTABLISHING LINKAGES. Trainers’ Methodology Training Program was provided to the faculty of Eskwela de los Mataderos by TESDA provincial office in July 2006. The comprehensive curriculum that does not only deal with slaughtering skills but also regular general education courses that complement the acquired skills and enable the graduates to adapt themselves in a professional organizational setting.

Biguenos deserve to win the Gawad Galing Pook Award for its Eskwela de los Mataderos

Every program that serves the people deserves recognition. The Eskwela de los Mataderos of Vigan City is one such program. From its inception up to its implementation, traversing two administrations, it holds on to its original vision—to uplift the lives of the people.

The City of Vigan puts modesty aside and declares its project, the Eskwela de los Mataderos, worthy and deserving of for the following reasons:

1. IT IS INNOVATIVE. The Eskwela de los Mataderos is the first of its kind to be offered by a local government unit in Northern Luzon. It is a testament of a leadership committed to exercise political will to implement its programs.
2. IT BEARS THE MARK OF EXCELLENCE. Quality comes before quantity. Not all applicants who aspire to enroll are accepted. They have to go through a screening committee composed of three TESDA personnel and two city government employees. The screenings for the program determine if the applicant is fit to be trained as a professional butcher. While it may be so easy to earn so much from the students aspiring for the skills needed for them to be employed, the city government does not take advantage of this but adheres to the culture of excellence that must prevail if it wants to produce globally competitive butchers. Every graduate is the city’s ambassador.Their skills, knowledge and attitude carry the city’s name and honor.
3. IT CARES. The program’s graduates have become targets of unscrupulous recruitment agencies. Since the first batch graduated, the program manager has been constantly plagued with calls from recruitment agencies showing interest in hiring the graduates of the school. But being mindful of the security of its alumni, the program manager deals with these agencies with caution, ever weary of those who take advantage of the graduates’ vulnerability to the promise of high wages. The school screens recruitment agencies showing interest in its graduates—to see to it that the fees collected are minimally reasonable and affordable by the prospective workers.
4. IT WORKS. The program has surpassed itself going beyond its expected outcome. The intended beneficiaries were initially just Bigueños. But even at the beginning of the program, the benefits have extended to people from neighboring municipalities and provinces. The initial estimated target enrollees has also been surpassed. The increase in applicants have multiplied not just numerically but exponentially. First batch numbered 16, second batch is 25. The applicants for third batch has reached 50 .

Positive Results

Eskwela de los Mataderos is a program that works. It has created an impact on the lives, not only of Biguenos but to other Filipinos as well.

1. UPLIFTMENT OF THE MORALE OF LOCAL BUTCHERS. Local Mataderos, used to be just
   that—“partidor”—ordinary men who practiced their trade, with barely a cloth in their bodies, often naked from the waist up, wielding razor sharp knives and massive bolos. They acquired their skills from their kin, or by watching neighbors do it at dawn when enterprising housewives sold their hogs to the neighborhood butcher who slaughtered the animal, chopped it in parts and pieces, weighed and packed at a kilo each. Though slaughtering was a skill, it did not give a modicum of pride and self-respect because it had no seal of excellence inked in a certificate. In a society where being schooled was the mark of a decent man, putting great importance on that black and white thing that hang on a family’s living room, the lowly partidor couldn’t see himself occupying a decent place under the sun because there is nothing in his possession to show that he is a professional.But today, with Eskwela de los Mataderos, the partidor shreds off his rags and puts on a nice blue overall uniform, complete with boots and white hard hat. He uses modern tools and equipment in his hands-on training and undergoes classroom instructions. After two months, he receives a certificate in a fitting ceremony declaring him a PROFESSIONAL BUTCHER.
2. VIGAN’S FAMOUS MEAT PRODUCTS BECOME WORLD CLASS. With professional Mataderos graduating every two months,the Vigan slaughterhouse will soon be populated with highly skilled butchers. Gone are the days when the meat that mothers brought home from the market are suspect of being unsanitary because of the unkempt appearance of local butchers. The improved skills of the traditional partidor is an assurance that the meat from the ViganAbattoir is world class in terms of safety and sanitation. Besides, the abattoir where the animals were slaughtered has been “consistently cited by the National Meat Inspection Services as one of the cleanest … in Region I.”
3. CREATION OF POTENTIAL LOCAL AND OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT. Employment comes easy with skills. Jobs will not only be available locally, but internationally as well. This is already true considering the number of calls from recruitment agencies that come at the registrar’s office asking to be given first blood from the school’s graduates.
4. IMPROVEMENT IN THE STANDARD OF LIVING. It follows of course that with skills comes employment that comes with income that constitutes purchasing power.
5. ESTABLISHMENT OF VIGAN AS A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF SKILLED MANPOWER. With the success of Eskwela de los Mataderos, Vigan has tapped another human potential. Under Mayor Eva’s leadership, another project proposal is being prepared putting together the Eskwela de los Mataderos and the Eskwela Talyer that will be revived under one umbrella institution, the Instituto de Habilidades de Vigan (Skills Institute of Vigan).

Conclusion

There is nothing ordinary about a people being blessed with a government that truly cares. Seldom is there a project that really makes a difference in a people’s life. Projects and governments like these deserve to be replicated and recognized with a citation to serve as a testimony to their rarity. Vigan City has Eskwela de los Mataderos to illustrate that political will is possible to implement a worthwhile project if those who hold the power in their hands are willing to wield it.

TESDA Approved Programs

Here is the list of available TESDA registered programs and short courses offered in “Eskwela De Los Mataderos” in the province of Ilocos Sur.

List of Tesda Courses Offered / Registered Programs

Course Authorized	Duration
Slaughtering Operations (Swine) NC II	280 Hours

Requirements for Enrollment:

• NSO Birth and Marriage Certificates
• NBI Clearance
• High School Diploma
• Medical Certificate
• 2X2 Photo
• Certificate of Slaughtering Experience
• Mayor’s Endorsement
• Congressman’s Endorsement
• Endorsement of Tesda Provincial Office

Training Fees and Schedule

The cost of training and tuition fees may vary depending upon the specific course of interest and the school offering the training. Training centers also may have slightly different syllabus to teach to students in a class.

For inquiries, tuition fees, enrollment procedures, class schedule and other concern, it would be better that you visit their school/training center and inquire for other documents they may need.

Location and Contact Information

For further information, please visit Eskwela De Los Mataderos. The assessment center is located at Brgy. 5, Vigan City, Philippines.