SMART offers OJT to Visayas partner schools

Some 22 students from four Visayas school partners under the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) have begun their summer on-the-job training with Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) in Cebu City.

SMART Network and Platforms Services Division Visayas Senior Manager Ma. Hiyasmin Quiñal welcomed the 5th year ECE students from University of San Carlos and Don Bosco Technology Center in Cebu City, Holy Name University in Tagbilaran City, Bohol and University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City during the opening ceremonies.

Photo shows the students from SWEEP partner schools who are participating in SMART’s summer on-the-job training with (standing first from right) SMART Network and Platforms Services Division (NPSD) Visayas Senior Manager Ma. Hiyasmin Quiñal and (standing, leftmost) and Regional Command Center Senior Supervisor Noel Hermosisima.

“Maximize this opportunity for hands-on learning because this exposure will help you determine if you want to pursue a career in the telco industry and help you prepare for it,” she told the students.

Participants of the SMART OJT are expected to undergo lectures and perform routine maintenance and operations work under the guidance of SMART engineers in selected facilities.  The program is expected to end by mid-May.

Since SMART launched SWEEP in March 2003, the company has been accommodating more than 1,500 students from partner schools nationwide for on-the-job training.

To date, SMART has 38 ECE school partners nationwide under SWEEP, a unique industry-academe partnership that seeks to raise the level of engineering and technology education in the country, particularly in the field of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE).

SMART’s efforts to help ECE schools produce industry-ready graduates under SWEEP is part of its education initiatives under Kabalikat, its umbrella corporate social responsibility and community service program.

(Published 13 April 2010, Smart Communications Inc.)