22 Jan 2011
The two-week intensive training provided by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has become the passport of the 16 young scholars for employment abroad.
The TESDA scholars are soon flying to either Dubai or Qatar to work as heavy equipment operators in accredited institutions there and will have a chance to earn P30,000 to P40,000 per month.
The scholarship grants were part of the commitment of TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva to the Mindanao Technical Vocational Education Training (Mintvet) Association to aid its chosen students in pursuing their studies using funds from the agency’s Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP).
The scholars underwent training on heavy equipment operation (Backhoe Loader NC II) for 122 hours from November 15 to 30 last year in Salay, Misamis Oriental under the Skills Mastery Institute, a member of Mintvet.
After completing the training, they took TESDA’s National Certification Assessment on December 22 to 23, and is now preparing for the final interview.
Meanwhile, a total of 264 TESDA scholars in Mindanao are also expected to finish their course next month and will be ready for possible employment in the country or abroad.
The scholars are beneficiaries of the more than P70 million budget of TESDA for its TWSP in the region. Of the amount, P2.5 million was allocated for Mintvet.
The training commenced on November 3 last year and is expected to end on February 28, 2011, according to a January 15 status report by the TESDA office in Mindanao.
Of the 264 scholars, 184 (70 percent) percent have been assured of job placement after undergoing competency assessment in March.
"TESDA has put greater emphasis in giving access to free education to students in poor provinces such as those in Mindanao. Education will give them chance to have jobs and better quality of life," Villanueva said.
The training courses offered to students were on heavy equipment operation NC II, food and beverage NC II, barangay health services NC II, automotive servicing NC II, computer hardware servicing NC II, commercial cooking NC II, housekeeping NC II, consumer electronics NC II, and emergency medical services NC II.
These courses were offered by eight technical vocational institutions that passed the qualification requirements of TESDA
Around P1.87 million have been released to the eight schools for scholarship out of the P2.5 million allotted to the region, leaving some P622,500 still available for scholarship of interested applicants
"We assure continuity of the training program under the TWSP so that more deserving scholars can benefit in the future. This also helps in realizing TESDA's goal in providing quality technical vocational education and guaranteed employment to our scholars," Villanueva said.
Under the 2011 budget, TESDA has been allocated P700 million for the implementation of the TSWP.
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