18 April 2012
The country’s out of school youth (OSY) will get another shot at education that could open up opportunities for landing jobs or starting their own business.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) recently converged two of their major programs to offer training and employment opportunities for 7,000 OSYs.
The youth will be selected from 300 to 400 poorest municipalities in the country that were identified by the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster composed of heads of various government departments and agencies.
The program involves the convergence of TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) and DOLE’s Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) to give boost to technical vocational training by making it within reach of young students who could not continue their studies because of poverty.
“This is giving second chance to the young people who are not in education. We want to offer them an alternative education so they would have the skills they need to get ready for work,” said Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA Director General.
The program is covered by a joint circular between TESDA and DOLE signed by Villanueva and Lourdes Trasmonte, DOLE Undersecretary for labor standards and social protection.
The TWSP-SPES program is open to applicants between 15 and 25 years of age, who have reached at least high school level and have received an average passing grade during the last school term attended.
The OSY must be a first-time applicant of the TESDA scholarship program. Since it is focused on servicing the marginalized families, the combined net income after tax payments of the applicant’s parents, including his or her income, if any, must not exceed the latest annual regional poverty threshold level for a family of six as determined by the National Economic Development Authority.
The program is also open to occupationally-disabled workers, persons with disabilities, displaced workers or victims of trafficking, illegal recruitment or child labor. Training duration will be for a minimum of 20 days (160 hours) and a maximum of 52 days (416 hours).
The training program may be a full qualification or a cluster of units of competencies. Villanueva has instructed the heads of TESDA offices nationwide to submit by April 23 a qualification maps showing the target beneficiaries for each municipality covered by the program.
TESDA and DOLE will identify the training programs that would be suited to the beneficiaries based on the skills requirement of the locality.
TESDA will select the OSY and identify the qualified institutions where the youth will be enrolled. The agency will also oversee the training and afterwards administer the competency assessment for those who will complete the program.
TESDA will shoulder the training and assessment fees from the TWSP fund.
DOLE, on the other hand, will pay the 40 percent of the applicable minimum wage of the completion of the training program for the training allowance or starter kit of the out-of-school youth.
At the end of the training, both agencies pledged to help the graduates find jobs or a livelihood of their own.
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