my story

La vida techvoc
Seizing breakthroughs thru small ways
By: Gervacio C. Dauz, Jr.
TESDA Agusan del Norte Provincial Office

She was already wafting her way in college as an Education student in the most prominent school in Cagayan de Oro City known as the Xavier University. At that time, she knew that her university encounter was tough to surmount. But tougher still was that galling episode she had to go through in relation to the lady love of her dear father under one roof. Eventually, after hurdling three semesters, she had to pull her own plug and return home in Butuan City, to the embrace and solace of her mother, all because her relationship with her father’s “number two” his was crudely and intensely becoming mutually exclusive.

But instead of considering the event as a road block to her dreams in life, Debra Rutz Tanginan reckoned it with a grain of salt. Toughened by the storms of having to go through “la vida loca”, she briskly buckled down to taking up a post-secondary course, which is Household Services at the Butuan City Manpower Training Center. After finishing it, she took the licensure exam and emerged a victor with a National Certificate Level II to boost.

Still quenching for more knowledge and skills, she further consoled herself by taking up the English Proficiency Training at the Language Skills Institute of the Northern Mindanao School of Fisheries in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte under the PGMA-TWSP support. Little did she know that after finishing the course itself, several opportunities for employment started to open their doors for her.

As a sample, when she went to apply for employment at a Jobs Fair tendered by TESDA Agusan del Norte and the Association of TVET Schools in Butuan City and Agusan del Norte, she was instantly promised with a slot by Sykes Call Center in Makati City. But she declined, considering that she was already well on board as a part-time Disc Jockey of DXMK, a local radio station popularly known as Magic FM and airing at 97.5 frequency.

Right now, “Debrutz” – as she is fondly called and known in airwaves – is just a whisper away to her Station Manager of becoming a full time Disc Jockey of Magic FM. But she is still putting on hold said dangling opportunity; she is still snowed over by her other priority of finishing a Caregiver Course to broaden more her opportunities.

As of this time, she is just whiling away her time, feeling satisfied that she is getting droves of avid listeners and callers as the months go by.

But as a go-go lady, she desires that after finishing her current Caregiver Course, she would continue with a degree course, preferably Development Communication, Mass Communication or Journalism to improve more her knack in media.

Pondering over the recent positive developments that have come her way, she indicated that the most telling, “big bang” precursor to many of these myriad opportunities was when she seriously trained for 100 hours or about three weeks at the Language Skills Institute of TESDA.

Having improved her communication skills and grammar, and likewise gradually erasing her social phobia and metamorphosing into a confident, blooming lady, meeting and expanding social contacts, these are just some of the dividends she reaped out of said training.

At the bottom line, being transformed into a job-ready, job-fit specie is the best thing that has happened to her so far. And for this blessing, she is thankful to TESDA for igniting the flames and opening the doors. More so, she is thankful to her mother dear, kin and peers for being there during the rough sailing. Above all, she returns all the glory and praises to the Lord, “who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.”