Aboitiz Foundation, Pilmico, and TESDA Women’s Center team up for a new business training facility

The Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., through Pilmico Foods Corporation has partnered with the TESDA Women’s Center to put up a business innovation center at the TESDA Compound in Taguig City.

The business innovation center is a 500 square-meter space will be for aspiring bakery business owners to learn the craft of bread and pastry production. It includes a training facility fitted with up-to-date bakery equipment, a lecture room, and a cafe.

The partnership was formalized through a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signing ceremony attended by Apol B. Castro, VP Corporate Strategy and Business Development of Pilmico, Maribeth L. Marasigan, First VP & COO of Aboitiz Foundation, William Paradies, COO – Flour and Farms of Pilmico, Sec. Gene A. Mamondiong, TESDA Director General, Rosanna A. Urdaneta, TESDA Deputy Director General for Policies & Planning, and Marissa G. Legazpi, TESDA NCR Acting Regional Director at the TESDA Women’s Center on 24 August.

Pilmico’s VP for Corporate Strategy and Business Development Apol Castro shares, “The TESDA Women’s Center’s objective of empowering women and youth coincides with our vision to provide sustainable livelihoods to the community.”

The facility will be aptly named Wooden Spoon after Pilmico’s flagship flour brand and as a representation of one of the most reliable tools a baker must own. The whole renovation of the facility is estimated to be about 6 million with 3.6 million dedicated for the outfitting, and design of the space and 2.2 million specifically for the baking equipment.

“As trees and wood symbolize nourishment, liveliness, and unity, WOODEN SPOON will be more than a training center. It will be more than a facility of baking, brewing, and cooking equipment and tools. We envision this to be a facility of innovation and collaboration as we in the Aboitiz Group also deeply values innovation and teamwork”, Aboitiz Foundation COO, Maribeth Marasigan underlines.

For trainings, the TESDA Women’s Center always puts women as the priority for enrollees enforcing a 9:1 ratio of women to men in the classes to be held in the facility. In addition to this, the facility will also be used as Pilmico’s new center for trainings dedicated to their customers and other stakeholders.

The Wooden Spoon business innovation center is expected to be finished by October.