By Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA
TALISAY CITY, Negros Occidental — Online education platform 51Talk has partnered with the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC) in this city for the conduct of training programs for faculty, students, and graduates to become effective online English teachers.
The memorandum of agreement was signed by 51Talk country head Jennifer Que and CHMSC president Renato Sorolla in a ceremony held at the school’s Green Building Function Hall on Monday afternoon.
“CHMSC is very forward looking, forward thinking as an (academic institution). They are going towards university status. I think we are at the right moment,” Que said.
She added that the introduction of electives, seminars, and relevant training programs, particularly for faculty, students with English major and other four-year courses, and graduates, will equip them to become online English teachers who are ready to showcase Filipino teaching excellence in the future.
51Talk, owned by China Online Education Group and listed in the New York Stock Exchange, specializes in providing quality online English language teaching for children and adults across China through highly-qualified home-based teachers.
One of its center-based facilities in the Philippines is located at the Negros First CyberCentre in Bacolod City, which opened in May 2017.
It has more than 17,000 home-based online English teachers in the country, 10 percent of whom are in Negros Occidental.
Que said about 10 percent, or between 130 and 140 of the Negrense teachers, are graduates of CHMSC.
“They are performing very well,” she added.
Que said 51Talk aims to hire more to reach its target of 100,000 home-based teachers in the Philippines in the next five years.
For his part, Sorolla said the CHMSC partnered with 51Talk to fulfill the school’s mission of enabling students to effectively communicate in English to the world.
“In this highly-competitive 21st century, language is very important. This partnership is very relevant and very important to CHMSC,” he added.
Sorolla further said they want to produce graduates who are confident communicators.
“One of the institutional learning outcomes of CHMSC is interpersonal and communication competence, which bodes well with this budding partnership with 51Talk,” he further said.
CHMSC has four campuses, including the main college in this northern Negros city, as well as two in Bacolod City — Alijis, which hosts the Institute of Information Technology, and Fortune Town — and Binalbagan in southern Negros.
