To provide for the needs of the family is the main responsibility of a father. Billy Hanz A. Chiong, 23, is a single father to a 3-year old daughter. Since then, he knew that being the head of the family takes huge this responsibility and effort in order to sustain for a living.
Behind their humble abode lives a happy family, is a struggling father. While providing for his daughter, he also helps with the finances of his parents. His father works as maintenance personnel in a government office, while his mother stays at home as a housewife.
When Hanz, as he is fondly called, graduated from High School but failed to proceed in college due to financial constraints.
He ended up working for his uncle who had an aircon repair shop nearby. He was later enrolled by his uncle for a vocational course on Electrical Installation and Maintenance at Dipolog School of Fisheries. Hanz expressed this blessing as a great opportunity for him since he already had an idea on the kind of work after experienced working from his uncle’s shop.
Amid these opportunities, things didn’t go well as planned. Hanz got influenced by his peers from frequent late night from drinking sprees. This has greatly affected him and when his parents learned about this, he was ordered to come back home.
After contemplating and regretting on his mistakes, he went back to attending school and soon enough he was up for assessment. Unfortunately, he was not able to qualify. This started him to lose hope, he was having second thoughts on taking another assessment exam.
On 2015, An Implementing Project Development Officer of Sustainable Livelihood Program-DSWD was looking for interested Pantawid beneficiaries who are already knowledgeable on Electrical Installation and Maintenance to take free assessment examination. This became a good sign for Hanz to grab the opportunity. He took the chance and went for another assessment, this time, he successfully passed. He was able acquire the National Certificate II on Electrical Installation and Maintenance.
Wasting no time, he immediately looked for a job where he got a chance to work on his first job as an electrician at ZANECO, Dipolog City. Later on, he was encouraged by SLP IPDO to take Trainer’s Methodology, which consists of competencies a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) trainer or assessor must achieve, such as plan training sessions, facilitate learning sessions, supervise work-based learning, conduct competency assessment, maintain training facilities and utilize electronic media in facilitating training. Qualified program participants must be college graduates with National Certificates Level II and has acquired such qualifications and documentations mandated by TESDA to participate in such training. He was hesitant at first because he has no idea on what the training is all about considering he is also the youngest among the group.
The program also offered a free assessment to the skilled beneficiary, this gave Hanz a chance to undergo the process since he was well-skilled. The said support was trainer’s methodology (TM) Level 1 (Trainer/Assessor), this aims to qualify and certify the current pool of trainers to raise the bar of Assessor/Trainer qualification in the areas of technology and methodology for quality assurance.
While attending the training he was also employed at Montano Construction as a laborer, it was hard for him at first to balance work and training due to work pressure, but he continued the opportunities given because of his willingness and eagerness to finish the training.
Several months after being an equipped trainer, he now shares his knowledge to other individuals especially to senior high school students on Electrical Installation and Maintenance.
Later on, He became an accredited trainer of TESDA and currently teaching senior high school students from different schools in Zamboanga del Norte. He already conducted 12 trainings and earns more than 3,200.00 per day. He occasionally gets hired to install electrical wiring of houses and buildings in bulk basis and sometimes works for it for free. Hanz gladly expressed that the training given to him has significantly helped him and his family.
For almost 2 years in his profession, he was able to provide the needs of his family, not only the school fees of his brother but also the needs of his only daughter. He was also able to purchase a second hand motorcycle which he utilized to make travelling to work faster and easier. Aside from the knowledge he gained from the training, he proudly expressed his appreciation on the confidence and empowerment he was able to acquire from the chances given through the help of the DSWD which became instrumental to his successes now. His lifestyle may have changed, but he will never forget the opportunities that SLP has given him. Hanz has a big heart, he helps other people through assisting them in his job especially if there are simultaneous classes. Most of them are his former students and his brother. Still, he supervises everything and pays them for their salary amounting to 400 per day.
Hanz shared that he would not be able to achieve his goals without the help of the program.
“Wala ko gamahay nga naa ang SLP nga nitabang sa akoa”
“Thankful kaayo ko nga naa ang SLP nga nitabang sa akoa mga mausob ako panginabuhi, dako kaayo ko og pasalamat sa SLP kay nagpa-conduct sila ani nga Training (TM)”
He is also very thankful to those people who helped, supported and believed in him and to the IPDO assigned in Polanco, Ms. Ione Rasonable, for motivating and encouraging him to take the projects and trainings offered by DSWD-SLP. Hanz believes that nothing is impossible if we strive hard to make our world worth living.
Today, he is now enrolled for crash course program in Bachelor of Arts in Economics where hi future plan is to apply at DEPED to be able to handle Technical Vocational Livelihood subjects.