Tuesday, October 19, 2010
THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) said on Tuesday that it has earmarked P5 million worth of scholarships for poor high school graduates in Cebu.
Tesda director general Joel Villanueva said that under the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP), the teenagers will be given a chance to enroll themselves in the following courses, namely: commercial cooking, housekeeping, food and beverage, welding, machining, and refrigeration and air-conditionings.
He said around 80-85 percent of high school graduates from public schools in Cebu City have no opportunity to proceed to college education due to financial constraints.
“We want to prioritize the Cebuanos,” added Villanueva. “The amount of money we allocated for scholarships for the province will be used until the end of this year.”
According to Tesda, the training will be provided by the University of the Visayas and Regional Training Center.
To carry out its objective, Tesda partnered with the Cebu City government and a division of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the delivery of P20,000 cash assistance to qualified applicants.
“The Cebu City government is eager to grant scholarships to deserving students who cannot afford tertiary education, as they hope to make them become life-long learners and productive members of the society,” said Villanueva.
“Of course, TESDA will be more than willing to extend to them all the help they need in order for them to realize their goal,” he added.
Under the agreement, the Cebu City government will allocate funds sufficient for all the scholars’ training fee, miscellaneous and other fees for technical-vocational short term courses.
Specifically, the Cebu City government will grant a maximum of P10,000 for graduates of high schools located in the urban area of Cebu City while a maximum of P20,000 will be given to graduates from high schools located in the mountainous area of Cebu.
The Dep-Ed Cebu will handle the information dissemination and drafting of guidelines for the selection based on the agreement while Tesda will give education and trainings on 13 courses which include plumbing, household service, computer aided design, among others.
Villanueva said 124 high school graduates have already availed of the scholarships under the “Cebu City Government College Scholarship Program”.
“We are always willing to give our scholars the appropriate and best training to assure their global competency and employability, and enable them to attain their aspirations in life.” (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
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