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Last May 16 and 17, 2019, in celebration of Labor Day Month, FastJobs – Philippines’ fastest growing online jobs portal – gave away free tickets to Star City to 200 families, gathering over 800 at Rizal Park where the event was held.

“FastJobs came up with this event because we believe that family is the reason why our Jobseekers are motivated to find work and improve their family’s lives. This gathering gives them the opportunity to actually enjoy the fruits of their hard work and spend it with people they love most,” shares Sebastian San, the Assistant Director, Regional Partnerships of FastJobs. “At FastJobs, we understand and fully support the family-oriented culture of the Filipino.”

As a pioneering HR tech company, FastJobs has for years been the champion of the blue-collar worker, also regarded as the “forgotten, unsung heroes.” “They are the backbone of the economy, and it is only fitting that we make it easier for them to find the jobs that match their skills and which meet the needs of employers.”

FastJobs is a re-imagination of the ultimate hiring platform, built for speed and efficiency with mobile-first innovations such as FastChat, Resume Builder, and Group Broadcast Capabilities. This helps employers save time and resources to hire fast.

The platform works by having the jobseekers download the FastJobs App on their mobiles. After registering, they can immediately start submitting their job applications. With FastJobs’ easy-to-use features, it is a quick and simple process for jobseekers to apply for job opportunities.

On the other hand, employers are also empowered. They are given access to a web-based dashboard to manage candidates and job applications, as well as provided analytics to hire more effectively. With FastChat, they save time and avoid missed connections with jobseekers through the instant messaging feature.

“What sets FastJobs apart is really our focus on the blue-collar workforce, mobile-first approach, and our innovative features,” adds San. “In addition, we believe that our after-sales support is extremely important. This is so that our employers receive the help they need and find the right talent. Fast!”

FastJobs is more than just a job searching portal, it helps build community and brings back dignity to manual labor. Here, Filipinos will find not only like-minded partners and jobseekers, but discover a world of greater work opportunity. 

The FastJobs mobile app is now available for download in Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines at the Android Play store and Apple App store.




About FastJobs

FastJobs is Philippines’ fastest growing online jobs portal that focuses on recruitment of the Blue-Collar Workforce. Founded by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) as a startup, the platform was officially launched in April 2015 and has been transforming the way people are connected to jobs, with over 1 million mobile application downloads across the region.

The company’s vision is, “To provide everyone equal access to job opportunities”. As FastJobs expands across Southeast Asia, the company utilizes key data insights to support better job matching; promoting greater personal economic growth and improving peoples’ lives.

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May 2019 – The PROVIDERS Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PMPC), a financial cooperative headquartered in the Province of Isabela, is embracing digital financial services. PMPC launched its digital transformation to better serve members of their cooperative.

For cooperatives like PMPC, exceeding members’ expectations and augmenting impact in their lives are measures of its service excellence. To continue growing and meeting their members’ changing demands, PMPC adopts innovations and new technologies to get ahead of a rapidly evolving business environment.

With this member-centric purpose, PMPC set its sights on a cloud-based core banking system to better understand and serve its members and community more efficiently. With the approval from the PMPC Board of Directors, PMPC’s leaders chose Oradian as its cloud-based core banking provider and partner in digital transformation.

With Oradian’s cloud-based core banking system, Instafin, PMPC’s team has a real-time, 360-degree view of their members’ financial activity with PMPC in one place, available with just a few clicks. In the past, PMPC’s team had to go through a complex, multistep process to see a comprehensive view of their accounts.

Instafin has enabled PMPC to serve its members better through more accessible financial services and improved service and led to financial growth. Providers’ commitment to financial inclusion in its community and its pioneering spirit to embrace modern technology has led to sustainable growth. In 2017, Providers increased its lending activity by 50% from P993.30 million in 2016 to P1.49 billion in 2017.

With more flexibility and cloud-based solutions Instafin can offer, PMPC is able to reach more individuals in its communities and provide access to digital financial services while maintaining high levels of security. PMPC’s operations and their members’ data is protected by best-in-class security practices.

According to the national financial inclusion report by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the future of the financial system lies in going digital with cloud technology. As Providers and over 75 other financial institutions using Oradian’s cloud-based core banking platform, cloud technology provides the gateway to this future.




About Oradian

Oradian is a financial inclusion company serving financial institutions in remote, hard-to-reach communities. Using insights from its community of customers, Oradian offers a cloud-based platform that visionary financial institutions leverage to access best practice and efficiency.

Its global community is made up of over 75 financial institutions in eleven countries. Collectively, Oradian’s community of financial institutions provides access to financial services for over 3.3 million end-clients.

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Saturday, the day after my last day of work. Usually is the kind of day that you would see in a classic black and white film where everything starts out slow and quiet. Could be because of the pile of stress that I got through the week or perhaps because I haven't drank my morning cup of coffee? Surprisingly, I pictured this one to be a tad different since I got invited to a (coffee) Home Brewing workshop at the Institute for Coffee Excellence, and being a coffee lover myself, I looked forward to new wonders this workshop would unravel.

Before I share with you the details of the workshop, let me give you a bit of a background of the Institute for Coffee Excellence.

 

The Institute for Coffee Excellence is an educational institution that offers world-class training standards for the specialty coffee industry. Founded by Michael Harris Lim, the 2019 Philippine National Barista Champion, and the first Filipino to make it to the semi-finals of the World Barista Championship in Boston, USA. While sharing his advocacies in the international stage, Harris continues to carry out his life's work of creating a fully-sustainable coffee economy and takes another step by officially opening the Institute for Coffee Excellence.

 

Since he first ventured in the coffee business in 2001, he has been committed in providing solutions to elevate the quality of local crops and equip the Filipino farmers with tools and knowledge to help them keep up with the evolving industry. But through the competitions, Harris was able to see the industry in the perspective of a barista which made him realize that they also needed training in delivering the best coffee experience. As he stated, “This journey has inspired me to create a space to nurture the baristas and our Filipino coffee farmers.” Thus, he built the Institute for Coffee Excellence to have it thrust work at both ends of the spectrum: for farmers and baristas.

Going back to the workshop, here’s what transpired:

The Basic Manual Coffee Brewing Workshop was facilitated by Sir Argenel “Argie” Vegas. The 2019 Philippine Brewers Cup 3rd Placer, and Henry and Sons’ in-house Barista Trainer.

He showed us eccentric coffee brewing tools and taught us how to use them along with the important factors to take note of, like what type of coffee grounds and filters to be used in each tool, what’s the recommended brewing temperature of the water, how to use brewing scales , and more.

V60 (Pour-Over)

From the Japanese brand “HARIO”, the name “V60” comes from the vector 60. The 60 degree angle cone shape and spiral ribs inside the dripper allows paper filter to create enough space for the air to escape. Giving the coffee a bolder and richer taste.

*Uses medium grind coffee, and is best enjoyed on medium brew.

Chemex (Pour-Over)

Designed by a German Chemist named Peter Schlumbohm, this tool uses a paper filter that is 3 times thicker than other Pour-Overs. This is best used for intense tasting coffees like Barako Coffee as it gives it a better developed and smooth flavor.

*Grind Size: Medium Course

Aeropress

Photo Credits: crateandbarrel.com

Invented by Aerobie President, Alan Adler. Here, coffee is steeped for 10-50 seconds and then forced through a filter by pressing the plunger through the tube.

*Filter: AeroPress paper filter or disc shaped thin metal filters
  Grind Size: Medium-Fine/Fine

Syphon (Vacuum Pot)

Syphon brewing is rather advanced, and takes roughly 12 minutes. It’s a brewing method that’s done mostly by hand, requiring precise temperature, attention and skill.

It has two chambers where the bottom one is filled with water and is heated (by a burner or open flame), then the vapor pressure forces the water to rise into the top chamber where it mixes with coffee grounds. After that, the heat is turned off and the loss of vapor pressure causes the water to drop back into the lower chamber through a filter placed at the bottom of the upper chamber. This drop is caused by gravity and vacuum effect, which is why it is also referred to as Vacuum Pot.

*Grind Size: Medium

Among those coffee brewing tools, I personally liked the V60 because of the richness in taste it gives to your coffee, as well as it’s aesthetically pleasing design.

We also had the chance to try brewing coffee using the V60 by ourselves.

All in all, having a go on making your own coffee using these coffee making tools was what made this workshop a really fun learning experience. It brought me to a whole new dimension of the coffee world apart from the usual routine of just ordering coffee from Cafés. Big thanks to the Institute for Coffee Excellence for having us!

Want to take your brewing experience in a whole new level? Visit them at Sheridan cor Pines St Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City,or their website: coffeeexcellence.org for more details.

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For Wilfred Dy, what began as a casual search for a way to convert bank rewards points to something more useful became the rewarding experience of his life. The 53-year-old stockbroker from Binondo, Manila is the grand winner of the much-coveted GetGo Points to a Million promo.

“I was really excited when I heard about the promo. I’m a Citibank cardholder and I’ve earned so many points from my everyday purchases. I thought, saan ko kaya siya pwede magamit,” shares Dy. Fortunately, the answer to his question popped out when he heard about GetGo’s biggest bank-wide promo.

As a loyal GetGo member, Dy was thrilled to hear that the lifestyle rewards program is giving its bank partners’ cardholders a chance to win 1 million GetGo points. With this much points, he thought about the many beautiful countries that he and his family can visit and explore.

“For the three years that I’ve been a GetGo member, lagi lang ako nakakakuha ng points from grocery shopping. So, when I found out about this promo, I decided to convert my Citibank points to GetGo points to get those raffle entries for me and my family,” he recounts. “Pero it wasn’t until the last day of the promo that I converted my credit card points and luckily, I won.”

Before winning the promo, Dy has already been enjoying fun travels within and outside of the country. There was even a year when he flew more than five times for leisure trips. Now, as a GetGo Points Millionaire, he is taking his travel lifestyle to new and exciting heights with free flights!

“I was shocked ‘nung may tumawag sa akin from GetGo. It was just a normal morning on my way to work and when I answered the call, I was grateful to have received the good news,” Dy remarked when asked about what he felt when he learned that he won the promo.

Among the destinations that he is excited to fly to with his GetGo points are different international countries, including South Korea and Japan.

Just like Dy, you can also experience a fun and fulfilling lifestyle with GetGo. The rewards program of Cebu Pacific will stop at nothing to bring amazing travel possibilities as they continue to make daily activities like shopping, dining, watching movies, and fueling up more rewarding with points to fly for free. Who knows? You might be the next GetGo Points Millionaire! 

For more information on memberships and partners, visit www.getgo.com.ph. Never miss out on exclusive member offers and the latest news on partner promos by subscribing to GetGo email alerts. Just log in to your account, go to ‘Profile’, select ‘Preferences’, click ‘My Settings’, and choose ‘Count Me In’. You can also like and follow GetGoPH’s official pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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May 12, 2019 - MAKATI, Philippines - When was the last time we took some time off to create a lasting memory with our mother? This question and our tendency to be overly connected to technology led to popular Litson Manok chain Andok’s to take a back-to-basics observance of Mother’s Day. This year, Andok’s seeks to inspire families to disconnect from their mobile devices and create lasting memories with their mothers on their special day.

Dubbed as #HourMama, Andok’s campaign seeks to encourage people to dedicate at least an hour for some uninterrupted bonding time with their mother.
“Over the years, we have seen technology successfully bridge various gaps in human experience. However, we tend to be so excited with the advancements and the connections we can make from afar that we forget to give the gift of being present to our loved ones who are right beside us,” shared Maverick Javier, Executive Vice President of Andok’s Litson Corporation.“This inspired us to encourage everyone to take an hour of their time to take a step back, look around, and create new core memories with the people around them. And we thought it is best to kick-off this campaign by sharing new memories with our mothers on their special day.”

The campaign kicks off at Andok’s branch in Makati Avenue where customers and guests go offline from 12 noon to an hour and connect with the mothers in the restaurant. The branch’s WiFi will go WaFi (walang WiFi) as the restaurant’s wireless Internet connection shuts down during this hour. Fueling these personal and live interactions among families is the signature taste of Andok’s offerings, allowing the families to punctuate their connections with Andok’s iconic dishes.
“Andok’s has always been about doing things with heart and appreciation. With #HourMama, we aim to not just have a heart-to-heart connection with our valued customers, but to build meaningful relationships and memories within families. We are hoping this activity will pave the way to more observances of #HourMama as our fellow Filipinos spend more quality and uninterrupted time with their moms – even beyond Mother’s Day. Of course, this is best done with the offerings of Andok’s that we’ve all come to know and love,” adds Javier.

Everyone is also encouraged to join the campaign on Mother’s Day by taking a photo with their mothers after a dedicated offline hour and posting it using in social media using the hashtag #HourMama.

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