Presently, there are over 3,000 Tulong Aral ng Petron scholars in 80 public elementary schools across Metro Manila. There are another 730 scholars in Mindanao. With thousands more to be included in the program in succeeding years, Petron partnered with World Vision Development Foundation to manage the implementation and enhance Tulong Aral’s support services.

Petron Schools. With a dearth of classrooms in the country, Petron Foundation is building the PETRON SCHOOLS to give children access to venues for learning, especially in the most remote or conflict-afflicted areas in the Philippines. Starting in 2002, PFI has put up and inaugurated six Petron schools in the following locations: Misamis Oriental, Davao City, Zamboanga City, Basilan, Bataan, Saranggani, Mandaue City, Iligan City, Jimenez, Nasipit, Tawi-Tawi, and Sultan sa Barongis and Datu Paglas in Maguindanao.

Joining a United States Agency for International Development/Philippines (USAID)-funded coalition of five Philippine organizations called Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance or ELSA is enabling Petron Foundation to maximize its resources in establish more Petron Schools in ARMM and conflict-affected areas in Mindanao. Under ELSA, Petron Foundation is building 17 classrooms schools every year until 2007.

Youth Entrepreneurship Education. Tulong Aral ng Petron and Petron School remain viable system-wide solutions to address poverty. However, the company is taking a step further by initiating an entrepreneurial education and development program, which hopes to develop the Filipino youth to become wealth creators. By leveraging on Petron’s competencies, the company can help enhance the current high school curriculum on entrepreneurship, give them opportunities for employment and, in the long-term, guide them to become entrepreneurs. This way, Petron shall become a strong pillar of the country’s economic growth.

Together with the Technical Education, Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) and the DepEd, a competency-based entrepreneurship education curriculum is being developed and piloted in the Muntinlupa Business High School, the first and only business high school in the Philippines. Students will not only get an early training on business principles and ethics, but will also have the chance to acquire entrepreneurial skills. The partnership with TESDA complements the learning with critical skills training. One unique component of this program is the application of TESDA’s Youth Profile for Starring Careers, or YP4SC, which targets high school students and out-of-school youth by providing them with support services that will assist them in making occupational choices and career decisions and help appropriate training which will make them best fit the specific skills requirements in the employment market, either in wage or self-employment. This, according to TESDA, will “equip the youth and, in more general terms, the job-seekers with technical skills and competencies that will get them jobs and eventually make them competitive in the world of work.”

Petron is also extending entrepreneurship education to benefit college-level youths. For the past 15 years, Petron Corporation has actively been supporting the Junior Achievement of the Philippines, Inc. (JAPI), whose program uses hands-on experiences to help young people understand the economics of life. In partnership with business and educators, JAPI brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential. Through the mini-Company program, employee volunteers from Petron Corporation guide college students in the process of running their own small companies, with first-hand knowledge on finance, marketing and production.

Petron also recently formalized a partnership with the Education for Youth Enterprise (EYE) Foundation of 
Holcim Philippines to support their WIWAG program. WIWAG, a business management simulation training
program, teaches college students how to manage a company by enhancing their understanding of the
functions and interrelation of finance, human resources, research & development, production, marketing sales,
and corporate social responsibility. Petron is initially sponsoring the WIWAG Business Week program at the
University of Makati. Inspired by this, the company is finalizing plans is putting in place a long-term
entrepreneurship education program that will eventually produce a pool of future business-oriented leaders
and entrepreneurs.

< previous page