Tech-voc schools push for longer formal training

A partylist representative who is known for his successful ventures in the field of education filed on Thursday a resolution for the creation of a separate licensing authority for technical-vocational skills workers in the country. A-Teacher partylist representative and legislator Atty. Ulpiano “Ulan” Sarmiento 3rd filed House Bill 7705 to push for the passage of the Occupational Licensing Act or ola.

OLA is based on the study made by Tony Galvez, acknowledged as beauty and hair guru, for the need of the industry to uplift the economic conditions of the working class.

For decades technical-vocational courses were considered “baduy” or outdated. In a September 2008 article of a daily broadsheet, Ricardo de Lumen, then head of the tech-voc program of the Department of Education explains, “the notion was pag mahina ka sa academics, sa vocational school ka pupulutin. Pag magaling ka, college or university ang punta mo. Worse, pag vocational, iniisip ng tao di ka marunong mag-English, mahina ang utak mo.”

“Year after year, many Filipinos become part of the growing statistics of young Filipinos who find themselves either unemployed or underemployed. They represent a significant number of Filipinos whose academic backgrounds do not jibe with the needs of the labor market. That’s why there are, at present, Filipino doctors who have anchored their future with careers in nursing; or nursing graduates who are now call center agents; commerce graduates who have to contend with the salary of sales clerks and other circumstances which do not need belaboring,” says Galvez who is president of the Tony Galvez school of cosmetology, and public relations officer of Technical Vocational Schools Association of the Philippines-Quezon City.

Galvez said his group realized that it is about time that tech-voc courses be given proper, formal training through supervised classroom teaching for at least two years.

“There is nothing wrong with the government policy of providing short-term livelihood programs for those who are in the lower rung of the economic strata, for these courses address head-on the pressing concern of putting food on the table and money in the pockets. But there is no substitute to classroom lessons. Fast-tracking of knowledge and skills, short-term and quick-fix solutions have short-lived existence.

Thereby, putting sustainability into serious question, Galvez said.

Galvez explained that tech-voc courses are in the middle ground between four-year courses and quick-fix livelihood programs which put potential blue collar workers with the advantages of a shorter curriculum as compared to a regular four-year course and a longer practicum training compared to short-term courses.

“It’s easy to make money but it’s a lot tougher to make a difference. This is now the challenge to the government to support the development of the tech-voc industry. The passage of OLA will be a landmark social legislation measure because of the legislative intent to uplift the economic conditions of the working class. By providing the legislative blueprint for the establishment of the OLA, the members of both Houses of Congress will, in effect, prove themselves to be the champions of the blue collar workers, Galvez said. –Manila Times