In business, the sharpest investment isn’t always a new production line or gleaming machinery. Sometimes, it is handing someone a knife—after the proper training, of course.
Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corp. is proving exactly that through a partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and Infinity Vocational Training School Inc. (IVTSI), transforming its Tarlac Meatmasters facility into a real-world classroom where future meat industry professionals learn by doing, not merely by watching.
The initiative gives trainees access to TESDA-certified Slaughtering Operations and Retail Meat Cutting courses inside the country’s first multi-meat Triple AAA-accredited facility. Instead of simulated exercises, participants rotate through actual production areas—from lairage and slaughter operations to meat cutting and cold storage—where food safety, biosecurity, precision, and teamwork are daily requirements rather than textbook concepts.
The collaboration is a corporate social responsibility initiative of Pilmico with a practical edge. It strengthens the country’s skilled workforce while helping bridge the long-standing gap between classroom instruction and industry experience.
“Developing people is essential to building a stronger meat industry,” said Josh Douglas, Aboitiz Foods’ Assistant Technical Director for Meats Operations. He noted that opening Tarlac Meatmasters for hands-on training helps aspiring professionals build technical competence alongside the discipline expected in modern food production.
The difference is already evident among the pioneer trainees. Former sales executive John Kenneth Onofre said previous butchery training had been largely classroom-based. At Pilmico, he experienced the entire production process firsthand inside a Triple AAA-accredited facility.
Junior accountant Hazel Pauline Pilotin discovered that professional butchery skills could open opportunities across kitchens, processing plants, fabrication, packaging—and even overseas employment. Former overseas worker Ednel Galang now hopes the training becomes his pathway to joining the Pilmico team closer to home.
IVTSI president and chief executive officer Roy Aldous Bautista said combining TESDA-aligned instruction with Pilmico’s operational expertise gives trainees a competitive advantage in local and international markets.
With plans to train up to 50 participants this year, Pilmico is demonstrating that meaningful corporate citizenship isn’t just about giving back. Sometimes, it’s about giving people the skills to carve out better careers—and, in the process, helping build a stronger Philippine meat industry from the ground up.
