Providing cutting edge technical-vocational training

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority

Joel Maureal was a computer technician profiting from the high-caliber training he received from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). The man is productive despite the fact that he lost an arm in a jeepney accident 20-years ago.

“Left with one arm to make a living, I never considered my handicap a weakness,” says Maureal, continuing, “Ironically, I found myself more blessed. It gave me the strength to prove that disabled individuals can be as qualified and competent as most people.”

Maureal today runs his own electronic shop. Besides providing an important service, his business also generated jobs in his home town in Bukidnon. The man sees himself as a living proof that perseverance can overcome the most staggering of setbacks.

Since it was established in 1994, Maureal is only one of the many success stories produced by the Tesda.

The agency was born through the collaborative effort of the National Manpower and Youth Council, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Bureau of Technical and Vocational Education of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, and The Apprenticeship Program of the Bureau of Local Employment. Tesda is the government agency responsible for managing and supervising technical education and skills development in the Philippines. Its establishment was based on Republic Act 7796 also known as the Technical Education and Skills Development Act of 1994. The law aims to facilitate the full participation of industries, the labor sector and local governments and technical-vocational institutions in the skills development of the country’s human resources.

The Tesda is continuously working to lessen the overlapping in skills development activities initiated by various public and private sector agencies and to provide a clear-cut direction for the country’s technical-vocational education and training system.

The Tesda is mandated to integrate, coordinate and monitor skills development programs, restructure efforts to promote and develop middle-level manpower, approve skills standards and tests, develop an accreditation system for institutions involved in middle-level manpower development, fund programs and projects for technical education and skills development; and assist trainers training programs.

Blue-collar blues

A decade and a half after its establishment, the Tesda is still facing many challenges today. Besides the insufficiency of fund to provide technical-vocational training on a nationwide scale, it also had to deal with the challenge of promoting blue-collar work as a favorable career path. Commenting spiritedly on the subject, Tesda’s Director-General Augusto Syjuco attests, “Times have indeed changed so much.”

Skilled technical workers are now globally in-demand with lucrative salaries that would equal the salaries of local professionals. With this trend, Syjuco believes that the era when people look down on blue-collar workers is over. “There used to be a time when the children, and even the parents didn’t like to take up technical-vocational courses because they wanted their children to be professionals and to take up college education,” Syjuco told The Manila Times. “We inherited that from the Spaniards. Most of us want white-collar jobs. But given the reality, not everyone is equipped to be a professional. Some either can’t afford the necessary training while others just don’t have the aptitude for it. There are those who excel in manual labor and there is always a respectable place for them in society. That’s why it’s good that right now, there is a strong promotional campaign for technical-vocational education because first and foremost, that is what the labor market really needs,” he points out.

Taking advantage of such demands, Syjuco reveals that one of the main thrusts of Tesda right now is to educate people on the opportunities available for people with technical-vocational training.

“One of the biggest things that I introduced when I came here is social marketing,” Syjuco narrates, adding, “Before, this organization didn’t make full use of the media so what happened was the few who received the information about us and what we do were the only ones who were able to grab the opportunity to better their lives.”

Syjuco emphasizes that Tesda employees also visit schools, give career talks regarding in-demand occupations and even make comic books based on success stories.

But it seems that informing people on the profitability of taking technical-vocational courses was not enough. Syjuco even expounded on the problem of skill and career mismatch. “One of the main problems we realized is that for some families, when the parents are, let’s say, nurses, the tendency is for kids to be veered toward that same path. Usually, they fail to consider what their interests are as well as their full capabilities. So they will enroll in courses that are not suited for them and end up wasting a lot of money,” Syjuco laments.

To remedy this problem, he initiated a career-profiling program. Utilizing a computer based assessment instrument, this program basically outlines not just the skills, which a person excels in but also the list of careers where he or she would be best suited for. Syjuco and Tesda employees affectionately dubbed it the “Youth Profiling for Starring Careers.”

“We say ‘starring’ because it will list the careers where you would most likely be at your best. All those who apply for a Tesda scholarship are encouraged to take this so that at least they’ll be guided. We believe that this will benefit a lot of people because it will lessen drop-outs and it will lessen the chances of us giving scholarships to those who don’t really have an aptitude for certain technical-vocational courses. After all, we are using the people’s money. We’d rather not invest on those who would enroll in Tesda courses and then afterwards drop out just because they suddenly feel that it is not their niche. As a policy, we don’t pay for the scholarship of those who dropout,” Syjuco explains.

This of course, as Syjuco believes, only deals with the first part of the issue. Another cause of job “mismatch” is the prevalence of “new” opportunities. Before, there were no job titles like “call center agent” or “medical transcriptionist.” And while there are a lot of employers who seek them these days, not everyone is fit to fill in these positions.

“While there is a sudden rise in the number of such jobs, a lot of people can’t capitalize on this development because some of them still pursue traditional courses. So while there are a lot of vacancies waiting for job seekers, their skills don’t match those occupations,” Syjuco says.

In order to cope with the changing times, Tesda spearheads the development of curricula suited for such occupations.

“We have visitors from abroad who do not only come here to see the quality of the students but to tell us that there are opportunities abroad,” says Syjuco, adding,” So if they come here and say, we need butchers, we need welders, we develop a curriculum that is tailored for them. The information doesn’t come from us but the private sector players themselves.”

Hands-on learning

But despite their specialized technical training programs, Syjuco maintains that Tesda schools have a lot of similarities with traditional colleges. They also teach academic subjects like Math and English, and they also tackle theories. But unlike regular colleges, their academic subjects are taught for the purpose of enhancing a worker’s capability in the workplace. He stresses the fact that Tesda does not only teach theories but also gives its scholars hands-on experiences.

“Based on our studies, 48.7 percent of those who finished Tesda courses got employed within six months,” Syjuco shares. “I think that the reason behind this is that whenever we promulgate regulations, we look at the labor market. Why? Because we train for employment. In Tesda, we don’t just teach theories, we also teach skills. So, if you are for example enrolled in a welding program, you won’t just know what welding is about, you would also know how to do it. Up to now, we have been encouraging companies themselves to open up their facilities for training. And a lot of them comply because they realized that a lot of skills are not often offered in schools.”

Beginning with seven training programs, the Tesda now offers over 200 technical-vocational programs.

“We use the method of contextual learning. We don’t teach basic disciplines as separate subjects but as something related to the context of the work you are planning to take. We teach ‘workplace Math’ and ‘workplace English,” Syjuco says.

Another distinct factor of Testa training is the shortness of its courses. Depending on the complexity of the course, a training period may last from two months to two years. Syjuco admits that this is very attractive to a lot of people especially those who need to learn a trade fast and earn a living. A case in point is Johanna Palmer, who is currently working as a call center agent in Teletech.

Pressed to earn an income and help her mother, Palmer admits that she was drawn to Tesda training because it is fast and practical.

“Being a daughter of a single mother, I grew up without any financial support from my estranged Australian father. The two year course offered by Tesda served as a good opportunity especially since we didn’t have any money,” reveals Palmer.

Palmer is now working with one of the largest call-center companies in the country and is earning well for her family.

The success stories of Tesda like that of Maureal and Palmer caught the attention of President Gloria Arroyo. She was so impressed by the stories that she decided to beef up the Tesda budget from P200 million, to about P2 billion.

Elated by the development, Syjuco says, “With that, we would be able to give scholarships not only to those who are near Tesda schools but those who live far away as well. That is probably one of my proudest achievements.”

This year, the Tesda is aiming to get a higher budget (more than P5 billon) for scholarships and other programs that Syjuco is planning to initiate to make the agency more capable in fulfilling its functions.

“My number one priority right now is the electronic learning program to be launched by Tesda. Within the next year or so, hopefully, it would be fully operational to make learning easier to those who live in places that don’t have easy access to the schools but has access to computers,” he reveals.

Syjuco says Tesda actively pursues partnership with other institutions, “As for the skills that you need to learn hands on, we have this thing called blended learning wherein you take all the theories using the e-learning and after that you can go to Tesda schools that would give them the hands-on experience they need. We have 120 schools nationwide. But of course, we also register the programs in private schools like Systems Technology Institute, AMA and Informatics. So, when we talk of scholarships, that’s not just for Tesda schools but for those schools as well. We even register some state colleges. We have about 4,000 of them.”

While advocating technical-vocational education, Syjuco stresses that Tesda is not against college education. He believes that both are important but people should understand that not everyone is cut out for the same kind of work.

Pertaining to choosing the right career that best suits one’s capabilities he concluded, “Everyone was made to be a star, you only need to determine where you are to be starring in and how to sparkle best.”  –Angelo Cantera, Reporter, Manila Times