July 5, 2018
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will be stepping up its efforts to expand the capacity of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to support the implementation of President Duterte’s "Build Build Build" infrastructure program, which will need some 200,000 construction workers nationwide.
TESDA Director General, Secretary Guiling “Gene” Mamondiong said that the agency will strengthen its partnerships with business and industry groups in the provision of skills training in the construction related training programs.
At present, the TESDA training institutions have tied-up with construction companies such as, Aboitiz Construction, Golden Bay Philippines Corp., and Jorviv’s Construction, particularly in Region Vll, Vlll and X, that would broaden job opportunities to qualified TVET graduates.
Mamondiong also said that the agency will look for ways to increase the number of trainers, assessors and accredited assessment centers. The agency is also looking into possible partnerships with other government agencies and private organizations.
The TESDA chief also said that they will formulate action plans that will increase the number of skilled workers, especially in occupations that are ‘hard-to-fill’ such as heavy equipment operator, mason and scaffolder.
“It is significant to note that there are graduates of scaffold erection and masonry which are included among the identified as critical skills for the infrastructure development under the Build Build Build Program. However, training on Heavy Equipment Operations is not included in the top qualifications with the most number of graduates, which was identified as critical and hard-to-fill skills,” Mamodiong said.
On March 9, 2018, Mamondiong issued the “Guidelines on the Implementation of TESDA’s Train to Build Build Build Project” that aims to train and develop skilled workers in the construction sector, develop models that shall be used in the conduct of training and expand TVET delivery capacity in construction-related training programs.
Based on the latest status report, from 2017 to April 30, 2018 a total of 123,537 have enrolled in construction-related training programs. In the same period, 90,240 already completed their training.
Among the regions with the most number of enrollees include the CARAGA, Region lV-B, Region lV A and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Meanwhile, in the latest list of TESDA’s Registry of Workers Assessed and Certified (RWAC), there are 94,452 graduates and workers that have National Certificate (NC) in the qualifications under the construction sector, most of them have skills in welding and building construction.
As of March 30, 2018, there are 6,251 National TVET Trainer Certificate (NTTC) Holder in Construction related training programs, who can be tapped as trainers. Most of the NTTC holders are for the following training programs: EIM NC II, SMAW NC II, and Carpentry NC II. On the other hand, there are 2,959 available assessors for this sector, across the country.
On December 30, 2017, TESDA and Construction Industry Workers Council (CIWC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) entitled “Uplifting the Construction Workers through Skills Development” that aims to produce skilled workers in the construction industry by providing interventions through skills development for self-employed or wage-employed that would elevate their economic status.
It would be recalled that in June 2017, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board Committee on Infrastructure (INFRACOM) and Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) identified 75 infrastructure projects as flagship programs of the administration.
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