DUBAI, 8 October 2006 — The Filipino Computer Club (FCC) in Dubai has initiated a signature campaign petitioning the Department of Labor and Employment in Manila to help provide a training venue for its weekend classes.
There are more than 800 new students currently enrolled in the club’s free training program being held every Friday. These students are enduring more than two hours of lecture seating on uncomfortable bar chairs with high cocktail tables under the dimly lit place of one of the popular Filipino hangouts in the Karama area.
One venue at an Islamic center in the Abu Hail area is considered conducive for learning but it is far from Karama, making it inconvenient for the club’s volunteer instructors.
Arab News learned that the 20 personal computers owned by the FCC and which were earlier installed in one of the training rooms of the POLO-OWWA office are now being distributed to the officers for safekeeping.
In a letter to the various Filipino organizations in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, Labor Attaché Vicente Cabe said the training equipment and other belongings stored at the POLO-OWWA office have to be removed because the government entities are relocating to a smaller new office as their current office contract has not been renewed.
His letter said their new office cannot accommodate any more training or upgrading programs.
“This place is not really conducive for learning,” Lea Tuscanon of the FCC said in an interview at the Karama hangout. “You learn fast when there’s a computer, unlike here where your attention is divided.”
She said they were still glad to have a place to study, “but we are hoping the government can provide a better place for us so we can better enhance our skills.”
FCC President Cherry Pye Zablan-Torres added: “It is so sad that we are having a problem now considering the fact that we have a huge number of students and we are here where it is not really comfortable for students to harness their skills to be competitive in the job market.”