Subic Bay Freeport—Past the bridge as you enter Subic Bay Freeport’s Rizal Gate is a cluster of small, ordinary-looking buildings fronted by a huge narra tree. Nothing special there, it would seem. But inside, in fact, is a laboratory where some of the best local talents in information technology get worked up—and literally, that is.  This is Comteq Computer and Business College, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone’s local version of the School of Hard Knocks.

Here, as part of their curricula, students taking up IT and computer science courses have to go through at least 150 hours of practicum at the school’s WorkStation and IT Center. Those who are really IT inclined get to work extra hours at their own time, studying the nuts, bolts and bytes of both hardware and software.

“This is actually Comteq’s best-known little secret,” says school deputy administrator Ansbert Joaquin, who runs the day-to-day operations of the family-owned business. “We are now planning to merge the WorkStation and IT Center and call it the Comteq Incubation Laboratory, but our on-site, on-the-job training facilities remain to be our distinct advantage.”

That edge has enabled this little school to deliver, big time.

According to an alumni tracking program that the school started early this year, most of its graduates have gone on to work in information systems offices of corporations and agencies like Meralco, FedEx, Wistron Infocomm, United Coconut Planters Bank, IDESS Interactive Technologies and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

A lot, too, have worked on projects like 3-D design and animation, web sites, client-server applications and other specialized software.

Right now, Joaquin said, Comteq students are working on two projects: the web site of Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay and the online registration program for the ICT Congress that will be held in Subic this August.

Joaquin said the school has had its share of really brilliant students who made investing in the school a source of pride for the Joaquin brood, who started the school 11 years ago.

Among those that easily come to mind, Joaquin says, are Joseph Metran, Artemio Sales Jr. and Anjo Catindig.

“Joseph is one unforgettable guy because after his first sem at Comteq, he asked to be signed on as a working student. He said he no longer had money for tuition,” Joaquin relates. “I agreed, and now after doing lots of programs for some big companies, he’s offering his services to Comteq for free. He designed the payroll system that Comteq is now using.”

Sales, meanwhile, was an excellent charcoal and pastel paint artist who studied computer graphics to express his art. The last time Joaquin checked, his former student was working as a graphic artist for former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

Catindig, on the other hand, was the kid SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza “hired” on the spot last year after seeing an audiovisual presentation prepared by Catindig during the school’s commencement rites. As it turned out, however, IDESS, a Subic business locator, beat the SBMA to the draw, hiring Catindig even before the SBMA could process his papers.

Aside from turning out highly qualified IT graduates, Comteq has also earned honors in interschool IT competitions. It was third place in the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) provincial IT skills competition in 1999, champion in the 2000 Tesda provincial and regional skills contests in electronics and third honors in the 2001 Tesda national skills competition held in Davao.

But what placed Comteq on the local IT map was its second-place victory in the Globe G-cash G-nius tilt, a nationwide competition held in 2005.

Joaquin says Comteq has come a long way from a three-classroom affair with 40 students when it got started in 1997.

Starting as a Tesda-accredited vocational education school that taught practical electronics and computer programming, the school had since matured into a Commission on Higher Education-recognized college with separate institutes for multimedia and information technology, business and management studies and the original technical education and skills development. Now, it has 20 classrooms, 16 staff members and 34 full-time and part-time faculty members.

The school population is growing, too. From a total of 368 enrollees last school year, Comteq sees a 100-percent increase this year.

The growing student population, of course, includes some 25 full “Comteq scholars” who get free tuition and miscellaneous services, and another 40 students who get from 25 percent to 100 percent off from matriculation fees.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community,” says Joaquin, adding that some earnings from the WorkStation and IT Center projects (yes, students do get paid for their work while studying at Comteq) would soon help fund the school’s scholarship program.

While enjoying only 17 percent of the market share among the IT schools in the Subic Bay-Olongapo City area, Comteq is now headed for better times.

“We’ve never had it so good. With the opening of our business courses, we’ll also start taking on the BPO and KPO requirements in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, as well as abroad,” Joaquin reveals.

As its corporate vision declares: “Comteq will be the leader in the use of real-work environment as an effective training method in delivering world-class Filipino IT professionals.”

Indeed, Comteq, the little school that delivers big, also dreams big. And it works to get there hands-on.

The Big Little School delivers

Subic Bay Freeport—Past the bridge as you enter Subic Bay Freeport’s Rizal Gate is a cluster of small, ordinary-looking buildings fronted by a huge narra tree. Nothing special there, it would seem. But inside, in fact, is a laboratory where some of the best local talents in information technology get worked up—and literally, that is.  This is Comteq Computer and Business College, the Subic Bay Freeport Zone’s local version of the School of Hard Knocks.

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