24 June 2014
In a bid to ensure the readiness of technical vocational (tech-voc) graduates for jobs, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) exhorted private companies to open their doors for either on-the-job training or apprenticeship.
Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA Director General, said the best workers that companies could hire are those coming from the pool of graduates that had hands-on training in the workplace.
"This is a sure-fire solution to the job-skill mismatch because the companies will have a hand in training the students with the skills they need for a particular job," Villanueva said.
TESDA recently gathered around 200 human resources managers from various industries in Metro Manila for an industry forum on the Dual Training System (DTS) and the apprenticeship program.
The forum with the theme “Industry-Based Training for Better Employment” focused on how industries can have greater role in molding the students to become the future workers that they need for their companies.
The event was spearheaded by the TESDA-National Capital Region (NCR), together with the Department of Labor and Employment-NCR and the NCR Alliance of TVET Schools Association (NATSA).
Representatives from companies came from the sectors of tourism, construction, health and wellness, information technology/business process management , garments, manufacturing/processing, metals and engineering, and aviation.
"Strengthening the Dual Training System and the apprenticeship program will not only improve the quality of tech -voc in the country, but at the same time address the job-skill mismatch," Villanueva said.
"Because of this, the employability of tech-voc graduates will increase and the participation of more industries in DTS will level up ," he added .
The TESDA chief said the industry forum was also anchored on the TVET Industry Forum organized by the agency in 2013, in which there was a commitment to strengthen public-private partnership in tech -voc, and improve the quality of training -- from hard to soft skills, and to include higher order thinking skills.
Institutionalized through the enactment of Republic Act 7686 in 1994, the DTS is an instructional delivery system of tech-voc training that combines in-plant and in-school training. The school and the company sign a memorandum of agreement and share in the responsibility of training of the students. The students spend 40 percent of their education in the school and 60 percent in the company for actual work exposure.
Under the apprenticeship program, on the other hand, participating companies can hire apprentices and train them for a period of six months. While on training, the apprentices are paid a wage equivalent to not less than 75 percent of the prevailing minimum wage.
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