November 28, 2018
Davao City—Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary and Director General Isidro S. Lapeña, PhD., CSEE, yesterday exhorted all TESDA regional directors to act as TESDA spokespersons, and urged themselves tell the Filipino people the positive stories of hope that the agency has inspired in the lives of millions.
“I enjoin you to tell these stories yourselves and be the spokespersons of the agency,” Sec. Lapeña said at the start of the TESDA’s Corporate Planning Workshop at the Marco Polo Hotel in this city.
“This is not a complex task since the TESDA has genuine and meaningful contribution to making the lives of many Filipinos, especially the disadvantaged and the dispossessed, better. As my representative in the regions, you have the credibility to communicate TESDA than anyone else,” he added.
One of the corporate planning workshop’s aims was to come up with a TESDA Action Plan for 2019-2022. In attendance are Deputy Directors General Rosanna A. Urdaneta, Rebecca Calzado, Gaspar Gayona, and all senior level officials at the Central Office and all TESDA regional directors. This is the first time that Sec. Lapeña has presided over a TESDA planning activity.
In his remarks, Lapeña laid down his priorities as the new TESDA chief.
“As I have said, we must endeavor to improve and build on what you have already built for us to become more responsive,” he said.
Mentioning what he said are “short-term doables,” the TESDA chief said one of his priorities is ensuring that TESDA officials and employees are made available in tasks and responsibilities critical to TESDA’s programs and services.
Another priority which he outlined is increasing the reach of TESDA to more Filipinos for them to benefit from TVET.
“Our potential TVET clientele is estimated at 45.79 million. A one-percent target in four years will hardly make a dent in addressing the most-disadvantaged sectors of Philippine society. We should improve access of our people to our TVET,” he explained.
To increase access to TVET and to reach out to more people, Lapeña said his plan is to seek the partnerships of multinational corporations (MNCs) and private business on TVET as a form of these private businesses’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.
He also reminded TESDA officials to tie up results of technical education and training with employment, saying TESDA graduates need gainful opportunities, including livelihood, to achieve prosperity and win in the war against poverty.
“We must win the hearts and minds of the people through TVET as a solution in stamping out the cause of poverty,” he said, adding that what TESDA does directly impacts on the lives of the people,” he said.
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