07 January 2015
Another innovative training modality on wheels will soon make pit stops in some of the country's far-flung communities to provide skills training.
The Mobile Training Laboratories are products of a groundbreaking collaborative project between the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to bring technical vocational or tech-voc training programs to barangays of the poorest provinces as a way of fighting poverty.
With PAGCOR's P50-million donation, 40 mobile labs will soon roll out in provinces initially identified as among the priority areas for intervention because of the lack of access to technical vocation education.
The project targets to produce 23,100 graduates of various tech-voc courses from these areas.
On January 6, TESDA and PAGCOR formally inked a Memorandum of Agreement to kick off the implementation of the project.
"Part of the goal is to make tech-voc training a real life experience to many of our youth, and key to making it happen is to reach out to them," TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said.
"Many might have heard of tech-voc, but don't know where to find it. If we make them experience it, then they would realize that they can have a career choice," he added.
PAGCOR chairman Cristino Naguiat Jr. said the project "is all about skills development and workforce development."
"By teaching young people critical industry skills, the mobile training lab is helping them get a head start on future careers and making them more attractive for future positions," Naguiat said.
The mobile lab is a compact box loaded on top of a trailer. Four movable boxes will be placed inside the compact box -- two to three boxes for tools, equipment and training package, and a box for multimedia equipment and its accessories per area. The compact box when loaded, weighs more or less two tons, which could be pulled by an ordinary passenger jeepney.
Each mobile lab shall have a complete set of training tools, training specific equipment and sufficient number of training packages (curriculum, learning materials, assessment tools, mock-ups for a particular training program) and appropriate multimedia equipment and accessories. These training resources will complement the available training resources of the tech-voc institutions implementing the training programs in partnership with the local government units.
The 40 mobile labs that will be initially produced will be delivered to the recipient provinces, which have been identified among the poorest -- Apayao, Masbate, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Zamboanga del Norte, Camiguin, North Cotabato, Saranggani, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. Other provinces will be covered for the next phase of the project.
"We aim to make the mobile laboratories available in other provinces in the coming months so that access to tech-voc would be within everyone's reach," Villanueva said.
"The reality is there are towns even in progressive provinces that do not have a single tech-voc school or college. We hope to be able to fill this gap in the coming months," he added.
A Deed of Donation for the mobile labs will be executed between PAGCOR and the recipient provinces.
Among the training programs to be offered are the following: Appliance Repair, Cellphone Repair, Plumbing, Electrical Installation & Maintenance, Small Engine Repair, Cookery, Bread and Pastry Production, and Food Processing.
Villanueva said that with the mobile labs, participants will save on transportation cost, boarding house and meal allowances.
For every poor disenfranchised youth failing to reach the doorsteps of a tech-voc school, the mobile labs shall instead knock on 25 doors at one time, bringing a promise of learning and economic empowerment, he said.
TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva (second from left) holds the cheque donation from PAGCOR worth P50 million for the production of Mobile Training Laboratories that will bring skills training to the country's poorest provinces.
With Villanueva are (from left) TESDA Director Imelda Taganas, PAGCOR chairman Cristino Naguiat Jr. and PAGCOR chief operating officer Jorge Sarmiento.
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