11 January 2014
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has set a target this year of putting on training close to two million youth and others seeking employment.
But Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA director general, said the figure could get higher and more young people could have access to technical vocational education and training (TVET) as the development of new programs focused on communities gets under way.
"We want our Filipino youth to have competencies and life skills that could be their assets in pursuing economic opportunities. It is essential that they get the right kind of education," Villanueva said.
In 2013, TESDA targeted a total of 1.8 million enrollees under its various skills training programs offered in training institutions, enterprises, and communities.
"We want to go beyond this and expand our services to more youth, especially those who need educational assistance, and we are laser-focused in achieving the goal," Villanueva said.
For 2014, TESDA, in partnership with technical vocational institutions, enterprises, local government units, and other national government agencies, aims to have a total of 1.97 million trainees, higher than last year’s 1.8 million goal.
The increase in this year’s targets was a result of the bigger 2014 budget of P 5.117 billion approved for the agency.
Villanueva also announced the creation of new skills development programs this year to expand the youth's access to TVET, especially those in far-flung communities.
One of the programs is the Special Training for Employment that would assist graduates in finding jobs after completing the training and getting the certification. For this, TESDA targets a total of 74,947 trainees.
Villanueva said TESDA will also deploy more mobile training laboratories to far-flung communities starting 2015 with an initial plan of 44 mobile schools.
The priority provinces of mobile training laboratories are Lanao del Sur, Eastern Samar, Apayao, Maguindanao, Davao Oriental, Ifugao, Zamboanga del Norte, Masbate, Saranggani, North Cotabato and Northern Samar.
For the agency's Training for Work Scholarship Program (TSWP), scholarships would be made available for key sectors such as agri-fishery, manufacturing, tourism, information technology/business process management, infrastructure/housing and logistics and other priority sectors.
This year, Villanueva said, TESDA also aims to provide the competency assessment and certification program to a total of 940,964 graduates.
As of November 2013, a total of 859,889 received the certificate after passing the assessment.
"We are very optimistic in achieving more in 2014 as we start operating under a new structure," Villanueva said.
The Department of Budget and Management has approved the proposed rationalization plan of the agency and the new structure will be in operation early this year. Some existing offices were expanded to strengthen TESDA's planning and programming capability as well as to improve its existing teaching technologies and service delivery.
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