November 9, 2010, 6:00pm
MANILA, Philippines – To help boost interest in technical-vocational education in the country, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva called Tuesday on instructors nationwide to employ innovative approaches in training their students.
“I encourage all our trainers nationwide to employ out-of-the-box thinking in teaching. I have heard that some of them have tried creative ways and this is commendable because innovative approaches to teaching could sustain and enhance the energies and impatience of trainees under their supervision,” he said.
Villanueva also vowed to continuously equip trainers of tech-voc education with appropriate tools so that they will become effective and quality trainers to their students, akin to degree holder professors in universities.
During the opening of the First Regional Trainer’s Encounter on Monday in Silang, Cavite, Villanueva also reiterated the importance of quality and creative means of training. The TESDA chief added that the skills required in teaching have changed dramatically that is why TESDA continues to upgrade skills and competencies by regular enrichment through activities like this.
The three-day Regional Trainer’s Encounter, said Villanueva, is the first of its kind which is aimed at developing and improving the skills of tech-voc educators. The participants were tech-voc trainers from Calabarzon. Currently, there are at least 500 tech-voc institutions in the region.
“We cannot forever stay in the backwaters of change, otherwise we get waylaid in the race to excellence,” he pointed out. “Mediocrity has gone out of fashion particularly among our trainers.”
He also said that such activity for tech-voc education and training (TVET) educators only shows that TESDA is prepared to take up the challenge of continuously innovating and exploring ways to pursue the development of human potential. “Each encounter that one goes through is an outlet for rediscovering or for re-inventing oneself. I advise you to have this mindset,” he said.
In the almost 501 institutions that TESDA has within the region, Villanueva said that teaching and training has ceased to be the sole responsibility of schools. “We have and still continue to equip you with the appropriate tools so that you can become effective and quality TVET trainers, approximating those of the degree holder professors to their students,” he explained.
Tech-voc educators, added Villanueva, are “instruments for wider capacity-and-knowledge building” in TVET.
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