The partnership proposed between Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants (BAHRR) and DepEd Bohol to conduct Teachers’ Immersion in the Hospitality Industry as a way to prepare Senior High School Teachers for industry-relevant education follows and is consistent with the action plans of the Tourism SHS summit held at Panglao on May 20, 2015.
BAHRR President and Bellevue Hotel GM Rommel Gonzales will take in teachers of Bohol for an immersion in actual resort operations, initial concept of 250 hours, to rotate through Food and Beverage, Housekeeping, and Front Office services. This immersion complements the TESDA-certification that teachers acquire as part of requisites for teaching technical/livelihood/entrepreneurial (TLE) courses in High School. The outcome is a contextualized approach to teaching Tourism-related tracks that increases opportunities for employability because of the relevance to actual operations.
Major Bohol resorts including Bellevue, Amorita, Bluewater, Bohol Plaza, Bohol Beach Club, and South Palms will participate. Their interest lies in improving the Human Resources for the Hospitality Industry. DEPED Bohol and BAHRR will detail the proposed program over the next few weeks with some technical assistance from CfC. The industry immersion will be done over weekends, the sem break and summer.
In addition to this program, BAHRR will consider equipping and furnishing the tourism lab to be built at Lourdes Natl High School. The intent is to simulate the actual resort environment so students are aware and familiar prior to their immersion.
The innovative program is transformative because:
1) it is replicable and scalable: complete modules and Deped Administrative guidelines will be prepared which can be shared across divisions and adapted to other industries.
2) Sustainable: while the pilot will be supported by CfC, BAHRR will integrate it as an association service. One idea is to establish a Hospitality Industry Academy geared towards enabling SHS and HEI teachers to teach tourism courses better.
3) Impact: Food and Beverage and other tourism-related technical skills comprise the majority of preferred TechVoc track specializations in Region 7, a major tourism hub in the country.
Coalitions for change (CfC) in Basic Education is an initiative of the Australian Embassy – The Asia
Foundation Partnership in the Philippines, which aims to enhance local resources for basic education by focusing on improving local readiness for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) K – 12 Program, specifically Senior High School (SHS).
Collaborating for SHS implementation is the overarching strategy for CFC.   SHS allows students to specialize in either academics, technical skills, and sports or arts, to increase opportunities for graduates to be gainfully employed, to start enterprises, or to be better-prepared for higher education. This strategy is undertaken in two levels – city and province. In cities, CfC’s approach is through the development of a local government unit (LGU) investment strategy for SHS. In provinces, CfC’s SHS strategy is to link with local industries: focused and sustained SHS implementation and collaboration and better quality investments in SHS from LGUs and industries.
CfC has worked in Bohol since 2013 starting with Abotalam, a program of DepEd on out-of-school youth. Then it led to the assistance on Tourism SHS through the endorsement of both the provincial government of Bohol and the municipal government of Panglao, given that both Panglao and the province, itself, is envisioning an eco-tourism image. This assistance led to the partnership of DepEd and Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants (BAHRR) to further contextualize the curriculum related to tourism which will include teachers’ immersion in the different resorts.
A signing of Memorandum of Understanding or MOU between BAHRR President Mr. Rommel Gonzales and DepEd Division of Bohol Superintendent Dr. WilfredaBongalos was done on October 16, 2015 at Egay’s Farm. The orientation on teacher immersion was done on October 21, 2015 at the Metrocentre Hotel and facilitated by the Project Coordinator Ms. Vera Villocido. The teacher immersion ran from October 21 – 30, 2015 where sixty (60) teachers were assigned in fifteen (15) participating resorts/establishments including: Bohol Plaza, Amarela, Bohol Beach Club, South Palms, Panglao Regents, Amorita, Henann, Bellevue, Be Grand, Bluewater, Metrocentre, Panda Tea Garden, Loboc River Resort, Rio Verde, East Coast White Sand Resort.  The continuing immersion program will be done during Christmas break and summer. (PR/Vera Villocido)