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A Brief History of Fernandez College

Fernandez College of Arts and Technology (FCAT) started as a technical skills school in Cruz na Daan, San Rafael, Bulacan in June 1993 with about 250 students. Starting with a dream to help many more financially challenged but deserving students, FCAT established its main branch in Baliuag, Bulacan. By June 1996, there were around 900 students and this would continue to increase over the years because of the school’s pursuit of its mission and vision.

Currently, it has 5 Campuses in Baliuag: Gil Carlos, R.E. Chico, La Rosa, and two in Pinagbarilan with a total of around 2000 students. The college is now a non-stock non-profit organization that offers a variety of 4-year courses and 2-year technical skills courses as well as offering review and modular courses such as Caregiving. The college emphasizes effective education that helps its graduates face life’s challenges.

 

 

Management Philosophy

The President and Vice President, Mr. and Mrs. Marcelo V. Fernandez, as well as their two sons (one of who is a lawyer and the other a professional teacher) envision the school to bring technology, arts and education to the countryside which can compare with the standards in Manila and international schools if not better. They started doing business in 1991, two years after coming back from their long stay in Papua New Guinea and Australia where they honed their skills as educators. The management believes that under the drive of the Government for better education, one of the keys to bringing the country in step with newly-industrialized countries of Asia (NICs) for short is to provide in demand skills to the youth that will be immediately useful to the mushrooming manufacturing and service industries throughout the country as well as supplying the needs for overseas employment.

The owners therefore aspire to provide these needed skills to the students in the shortest time possible at the lowest expense possible, striking a balance between quality and speed of acquiring the skills. The executives are basically educators who have been into teaching and school administration here in the Philippines and overseas (Papua New Guinea and Australia) for many years and their burning ambition is to operate an honest to goodness quality school in this part of the Philippines. They feel that it is in the area of education that they can help the country most because of their educational background, expertise and experience.

As both usually say, the school is foremost a mission and secondly a business venture.