He didn’t get the job he wanted—he got a better one
This year’s Tzu Chi Charity Run for Education doesn’t just benefit the current 1,395 scholars under the foundation’s Educational Assistance Program. The fundraising event slated for July 20 at Bridgetowne, Pasig, will also help support the 51 students currently enrolled in Tzu Chi’s Technical-Vocational Program.
Originally called Livelihood Program when it was launched in 2010, the initiative was meant to give underprivileged individuals a fair shot at gainful employment even without years of formal education. Sewing, dental aide, and other short courses were initially offered by the program; welding, machine operations, refrigeration and air-conditioning, and caregiving were slowly introduced in 2016.
Renamed Technical-Vocational Program in 2022, it has in recent years produced a 100-percent passing rate in the National Certificate Level II (NCII) of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), and 100 percent employment rate in 2024.
Importance of education
Elpidio Valdez Jr. has these short courses to thank for changing his life for the better, though in ways he never expected.
Raised in Aurora Province, this son of a construction worker followed in his father’s footsteps after finishing high school at 17. Yet he was also aware of the importance of education, and how knowledge and skills could open doors and get him places. Awarded a scholarship when he graduated high school, he gave the opportunity to study to his sister, the eldest of four siblings.
“We wanted her to be the first in the family to finish college,” he reasons in the vernacular.
Still, even with a scholarship, his father struggled to cover any additional expenses. Valdez watched as the head of the family sobbed over the decision for his daughter to stop schooling.
“She really wanted to finish college, but our father told her he just couldn’t come up with the money,” he says. It was this moment that motivated him to step up and ease the family’s hardships.
Valdez, who wanted to study civil engineering, set his dream aside and took short courses—steel welding and fabricator training in the Aurora Province branch of Tesda, then shielded metal arc welding in Tesda Manila.
The goal of all this studying was to prepare him for work abroad. He spent three months in Qatar, then two years in Jeddah.
In 2015, he planned to go a third time, when a neighbor who worked for Tesda told him about the training center run by Tzu Chi. Valdez became one of its machining scholars in 2017.
Unexpected calling
It was at the humanitarian organization where he discovered an unexpected calling—that of trainer of the program’s welding and machining courses. Starting as a training aide, Valdez was sponsored by Tzu Chi to take a Trainers Methodology course, which allowed him to teach.
Since then, about a hundred scholars have studied under him, he says, and all have passed their NC II assessment, a validation of their competency in their chosen field.
Through his guidance and advice, scholars have gone on to securing jobs both here and abroad. But they haven’t forgotten where they came from or who was instrumental in helping them get there.
“Thank you, Sir,” said a scholar from the 2018 batch of welders who is on his second contract in Qatar. “Without you and Tzu Chi, I would still be sitting around, jobless. Now I can help my family.”
Partner companies in welding and caregiving are reportedly pleased when they learn a trainee is from Tzu Chi. The attitude they show on the job, says Valdez, means that the values taught to them in monthly Humanity classes are carried over into the real world.
Changed man
At 37, Valdez—who is married to a fellow scholar and is the father of two young children—is a changed man. Since entering Tzu Chi, he no longer hangs out with friends after work, and volunteers his weekends to helping the foundation run its events. Even his mother, whom he continues to support financially, is surprised at his transformation.
“Think good thoughts, say good words, do good deeds,” he recites when asked which aphorism from the Tzu Chi founder resonates with him the most. “The words are simple but the message is deep. We can still change if we want to.”
And while he may not have reached his dream of being a civil engineer or overseas Filipino worker, fate led him to an equally important job—one that has him imparting his knowledge and skills to others so they can achieve their dreams.
“Just the other night before going to bed, I thought, I wasn’t really cut out to be a teacher,” says Valdez. “But things worked out so I would stay in the Philippines and help other people find work abroad. That’s my purpose in life.”
