The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will be working together to encourage tech-voc graduates to engage in profitable entrepreneurial activities.
TESDA Director General, Secretary Guiling “Gene” Mamondiong said that the two government agencies signed the memorandum of agreement last August 7 in Makati City for the Skills Training for Employment/Entrepreneurship Program (STEEP).
The MOA will provide opportunities to the graduates of TESDA’s Skills Training for Employment Program (STEP) and similar scholarship programs to put up their own businesses through the Trabaho, Nesyo at Kabuhayan (TNK) program of DTI.
“The project aims to provide interventions through skills development by providing access to training on entrepreneurship to graduates of TESDA program for self or wage employment to uplift their economic status," according to the MOA.
The agreement was signed by Mamondiong and DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez. Witnesses were Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya; Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Director Jerry Clavesillas; TESDA Deputy Director General for Partnership and Linkages Rebecca Calsado and Deputy Director General for TESD Operation Alvin Feliciano.
The MOA also calls for TESDA to come up with a list of STEP graduates and other similar scholarship programs and eventually provide entrepreneurship training.
On the other hand, according to the MOA, the DTI shall have the following responsibilities: “Assess and select beneficiaries from TESDA’s certified STEP graduates using an instrument that shall pre-qualify the graduates; provide entrepreneurship training to selected beneficiaries, subject to the usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations; assist the selected beneficiaries in the availment of the micro financing facilities; provide the selected beneficiaries access to start-up capital for micro enterprises; facilitate business registration to beneficiaries who wish to engage in business/sole proprietorship; monitor and evaluate the progress of the selected beneficiaries and provide recommendation to further enhance the project,”.
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