October 1, 2010, 6:14pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has launched a home-based livelihood program to increase the country’s self-employed workers.
TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said under the agency’s Skills Training Advocating Reliance and Self-Employment (STARS) program, which was initially pilot-tested in Bohol last Tuesday, unemployed members of the community can learn profit-generating skills and start their own businesses.
“I believe that if TESDA can create livelihood opportunities for people in their homes or home provinces, then there will not be any need for them to live in the streets of the metropolis and risk their health as well as the safety of their children,” Villanueva said in a statement.
“The best way to remove families from the clutches of dehumanizing poverty is to first remove the poverty mindset that numbs them into inaction,” Villanueva added.
Among the skills training offered by STARS are tour guiding, manicure, pedicure, hair styling or cutting, driving, cell phone repair, and masseuses training, and other unsophisticated technical courses.
The program is part of TESDA’s “Real Deal” strategy which brings technical training programs directly to the communities to stimulate productivity among it jobless citizens.
According to the National Statistics Office third quarter survey, out of the estimated 60.9 million populations of the Philippines only 39 million or about 64 percent is part of the country’s labor force.
Villanueva said that TESDA would further expand the program to allow its students to learn from specialized training providers through its scholarship vouchers, and obtain marketing and other credit advices from experts.
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