Alleviating Poverty Through Skills Training
The Propeller Club of Manila (PCM), formerly a branch of the Propeller Club USA but now independent, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the Alleviation of Poverty in the Philippines by offering scholarships to youths from underprivileged families, providing skills and training for employment in the maritime industry.
As of 2014, PCM has over 100 members from all sectors of the Philippine shipping fraternity along with companies supporting the local maritime industry.
The scholarship programme was started in the early 1990’s, sponsoring a single student at Don Bosco Technical Institute, Makati. Since then, with increased funding from both our corporate and individual members, we have been able to increase the number of scholarships, gaining a particularly significant boost when, in 2005, we secured funding from the Australian Government (AUSAID) through the Salvation Army Development Office, Australia. The additional funding from AUSAID allowed the Club to set up supplementary training modules and procedures which substantially improved the employment potential of the graduates of the Ship Mechanic (Fitter/Machinist) course.
In 2013, we were able to expand our scholarship programme by starting a Culinary and Kitchen Management course with training provided to the highest degree of international cuisine at The International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM), turning out graduates who can be employed as cooks on board ocean-going ships. Our first batch of Culinary Students graduated in October 2014 and we now have 26 scholarship students in the next batch that commenced training in November 2014.
A total of 326 students have graduated from our programmes, almost all of them employed by shipping companies whose executives are members of the Club.
With over 300 applicants from across the Philippines for each scholarship programme, we are only able to accept 25 and we would dearly love to increase this. However, in order to expand our programmes, we need sponsors and individual donors – no matter how small or large your participation, it all makes a difference with 100% of all contributions going towards the students’ training.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
