Identifying community needs in BS Entrepreneurship at Xijen College

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province --  Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship is not any common course like BS Education or BS Nursing found in almost any school in the country stamped with the starry  promise of employment one sees becoming a teacher or a nurse someday. The direction is established and the career path is drawn very clearly to follow and realize.

BS Entrepreneurship takes a different path. The path is creative, innovative, self directed, prospective  and radically  economic to realize a business potential and be a successful entrepreneur.  Foremost, BS Entrepreneurship sees what the community needs.

Xijen College founder and  chief executive officer  Joel Fagsao  says BS Entrepreneurship lets the student identify potentials of business based on peoples’ needs beyond what is materially available.

What the community needs is  the challenge that the student goes into to be able to spot a potential and  go beyond  what the next door neighbour sarisari store owner sells.

The Xijen College founder who  established  Xijen Institute 16 years ago  answers the question  with the establishment of a  training school teaching students how to repair destroyed desk top computers.  “There shall come a time when the community needs repair of  computers”, Fagsao said.

The demand for computer technicians and  computer  programmers have grown  fast since  the computer world  came out with first  products  in the 80s and invaded  Mountain Province in the 90s.  The Department of Trade and Industry where  Sir Joel worked for years was the first  office which had  computers  in 1992. 

Youthful students followed suit in learning  mechanics of  computer repair  in what is still offered today at Xijen College in the two year course computer hardware service technicians. Years of teaching computer technician course let Xijen reaped awards the latest having passed a 100% passing rate in the national exams in 2014 for computer technicians apart from a 100% passing rate licensure examinations in 2014 among its four BSEdstudents  who majored in Filipino.  

Computer technology eventually branched to a four year-course  bachelor of science in Information  Technology.

Most computer shops now in the capital town of Bontoc whether these are  repair shops,  tutorial shops or internet cafe are established by  Xijen Institute now Xijen College graduates.

The basics of the business side of computer repair and information technology is not far from  the newly established BS Entrepreneurship opened  four  years ago.

It takes an idea and a keen sense of  knowing what the community needs is the basic foundation of starting a business and this is what  BS Entrepreneurship wants to establish among students of  Xijen College.  

“We help the student come up with a business plan”,  Sir Joel said. “In the planning stage, the student must come up first with an idea, to spot an opportunity, not readily  available.The student must be able to prove that a particular idea is the answer to a community need. The entrepreneur  has a wider and broader perspective”, he added.

The idea looks beyond the already established needs of the community such as a kilo of salt readily available in the sarisari store, of what is not physically there but is a felt need, of what is seen less of a market potential.

“ We remove from our mind the question if there is a market for the product. We have to create the market”, Sir Joel emphasized.

A specialization Xijen College is venturing into is organic farming  and creating the market. He asked, “What is the potential for Mountain Province considering that majority of the people  are into  farming? We have a demand for organic products”.

Seeing the potential of  organic  produce including  vegetables and fruits goes beyond the readily available chemically fertilized cabbage and carrots.

The idea stems from the pressing need of good health and longevity. People nowadays are getting sick from almost any  kind of  illness one gets herself himself into- be this  cancer, cardiac  issues, diabetes, kidney troubles- mostly traced from what one eats.

 With people now  eating almost anything from  frozen meat injected with preservatives to chemically induced vegetables, foods and drinks with chemical  additives, the  need to  eat  organically raised  food is a growing  consciousness and prevent these diseases of the times that makes life short and suffering. Organic products come into the forefront of  wellness alongside the need for the popularity of it. 

“Learning is beyond the classroom. A keen sense of  observation is all part of the training. We go out of the school grounds and to the market and let the students observe”, he said.

Having been awarded the 2^nd Best  Farmer  award in the 2012 Lang-ay festival of Mountain Province,  Sir Joel knows what he is talking about. He underwent a  trainors training on organic farming in Davao and established a demo farm for organic vegetable production at Lengsad, Bontoc. Xijen  has a greenhouse and a facility for  composting. "We make use of worms and traditional  organic fertilizer production to raise organic vegetables", he said.

These facilities aid the BS Entrepreneurship student  appreciate and learn the basics and  knowledge of specializing in venturing into promoting organically grown vegetables and good health referred to as incubator approach. Xijen College coaches the  BS Entrepreneurship student from conceptualization stage till he/she is able to make her/his business  stable.