23 August 2011
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is matching government’s modest funding for 2012 with big ambitions.
For next year, Malacanang proposed a P2.725-billion budget for the agency, which is about P93 million less than its 2011 appropriations.
But TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said TESDA hopes to provide as many as 1.3 million individuals with various technical vocational training education and training-related services.
TESDA’s two scholarship programs – Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) and the Private Education Student Fund Assistance (PESFA) – will get P700 million and P200 million, respectively.
TWSP targets 50,000 scholars while PESFA, which is in partnership with private institutions, aims to benefit 14,268 scholars.
TESDA has offices and partner institutions nationwide that implement enterprise-based and community-based training programs. It also has a network of 125 TESDA Technology Institutes composed of schools and training centers it administers all over the country.
“It is imperative that we perform our moral obligation of providing every youth a chance to education, give them access to technical and vocational education as an alternative to formal education. We will ensure that we will judiciously use our budget to respond to this commitment,” TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said.
The agency’s P2.725-billion budget is divided into the following: P1.202 billion for personnel services, P1.523 billion for programs (including scholarship funds), and P20 million for capital outlay.
For 2012, the agency will focus on competency assessment and certification, development promotion, and implementation of new skills development programs, upgrading and enhancement of trainor competencies.
Responding to market demands to increase its graduates chances for employment, TESDA will also develop and offer other courses in electronics/semi-conductors, business process outsourcing, tourism, agri-fishery, and general infrastructure, Villanueva said.
The TESDA chief also said that the agency will develop other technical vocational programs to address the need of food manufacturing sub-sectors closer to primary production areas.
With a modest budget, Villanueva calls the 1.3 million target beneficiaries of training services as ambitious, but not beyond reach.
“We will reach out to other government agencies, non-government organizations and private institutions to partner with them to promote technical vocational education and produce more graduates with employable skills,” he said.
“Job creation should be an ultimate goal of technical vocational education,” Villanueva added.
Of the 1.3 million target beneficiaries, TESDA hopes to have 650,000 individuals completing the training based on its training regulations.
A total of 650,000 individuals are also expected to undergo the assessment services, and of this, TESDA aims to certify 520,000.
Graduates receiving the certification mean that they are able to demonstrate competence in occupation-focused skills specifications developed in partnership with industry training boards and key employment generators.
TESDA also hopes to track and monitor the employment destinations of 400,000 graduates once they are hired.
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