20 September 2022 – The third session of the LunChat series was held tackling the overview of the last two remaining railway competencies –  Fare and Ticketing Management (FTM) and Commercial Train Driving (CTD). Participants from across the country attended the short, informative webinar via Facebook Live while having their lunches in the comfort of their respective locations. 

This initiative was derived from the cooperation and partnership of the Philippine Railways Institute and the Department of Education in promoting railway-related careers and opportunities to graduating Senior High School (SHS) students. Micro-sessions such as the LunChat series were proposed to tackle and introduce different railway competencies to the students. The first LunChat was held in March 2022, which discussed the  Building and Facilities Maintenance and Passenger Management competencies. On the other hand, the LunChat 2.0 in June 2022 tackled the Tracks and Guideways Maintenance, Power Supply and Distribution Maintenance, and Signaling and Communications Maintenance competencies.

In the most recent LunChat 3.0, SHS students coming from as far as South Cotabato and Leyte gained insights and asked questions regarding the FTM and CTD competencies. The FTM competency was discussed by Ms. Karen Bitao,  an experienced ticket seller for more than 11 years in LRT line 1 and now leads the PRI’s training for the said competency. Meanwhile, the CTD competency was tackled by Engr. Darwin Discaya, a registered mechanical engineer and former MRT Line 3 train driver for 12 years.

The LunChat series aims to introduce and attract the youth and interested students to the wonders of the railway sector. Due to the sector’s continuous growth, a huge demand is expected in the near future. The  PRI then took the initiative through this series to ensure that the demand will be met as students consider joining the railway workforce by aligning their career paths prior to entering their undergraduate and technical-vocational programs.