17 January 2012
All roads lead to the country for this separate delegates of education experts and government officials from Bangladesh and India, who will visit for their study programs.
The teams will take a peek at the country's best practices on technical vocational and education and training (TVET) and see what they can adopt from these in their respective countries.
Secretary Joel Villanueva, Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), said the Philippines has a strong and well-established TVET system and programs focused on developing the competencies of Filipino workers and help them gain sustainable employment.
"Quality, higher education in the Philippines is not just about a college degree. It's also about skills training aimed at a specialization to put graduates in the workforce," Villanueva said.
He said education experts from others countries can learn a lot from the Philippines experience.
From Bangladesh is a nine-person delegation, composed of officials from its Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor, Technical Education board, National Skills Development Council and the private sector. Accompanied by two officials of the International Labor Organization, the delegates will be in the country from January 18 to 19.
The fellowship and study tour will be a follow-up activity of the visit of a separate team of Bangladesh TVET trainers and institutional managers last July 2012.
TESDA officials will give the visitors a briefing on the country's national skills development policy and its implementation, TVET financing, development of training regulations and assessment tools, and competency-based training delivery.
The Department of Labor and Employment will give an update to the delegates on labor market intelligence, particularly on skills demand and supply. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries, meanwhile, will orient the Bangladesh delegates on the role of the private sector in TVET development and strengthening.
The group will also tour the Pasig Livelihood Foundation to see how the community-based training program initiated by the local government unit has been contributing to poverty reduction in the city.
The group from India, on the other hand, will visit TESDA on January 18 to study TESDA's best practices on skills training and job creation.
The study program is under the Support to National Policies for Urban Poverty Reduction Project (SNPUPR), which is funded by the Government of India (GOI) and the United Kingdom.
Designed for officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and select state officials, the SNPUPR aims to learn the successes, understand the challenges and identify good practices from the Philippines in the provision of sustainable and affordable housing for the urban poor. The study program will also look at the promotion of urban livelihood and the approaches to skills development, training and entrepreneurship, which TESDA spearheads.
Villanueva said that technical vocational education and training in the country has not only become the only option for those who could not afford to go to college, but the first choice of many who want to hone their skills and immediately find a job.
"We hope we can be a good role model to countries in pursuing the TVET track," he added.
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