Free skills training for Quezon City out-of-school youths

MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City have a chance to return to school after the city government and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) signed an agreement to train them.

In the memorandum of agreement, TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva and Mayor Herbert Bautista agreed to team up in tapping out-of-school youths and unemployed adults for skills training.

The city government set aside P3 million to provide the free training in various fields with the help of its partner service providers.

Villanueva hopes that the program would be able to wean youth from idleness and make them productive members of the community.

“TESDA’s way is to offer them free training to allow them to discover their strengths and skills that they could use to find employment someday,” he said.

Villanueva said that in many cases, dropping out of school was not the choice of the students, but a condition forced on them by poverty.

“We want to make them feel there’s a second chance,” he said. “We don’t want our youth to give up on education because that would mean giving up on their family and their country.”

Under the agreement, the Quezon City government will transfer an initial R3 million to TESDA that will be distributed to six of its partner technical and vocational institutions (TVIs): Korea Philippines IT Training Center for IT-related programs; Royal International Training Zone for slaughtering operations; I Learn Training Center for tourism and health; Reyes International School of Cosmetology for beauty care; Mechatronics Technologies Corporation for mechatronics servicing; and St. Paul University Quezon City, Inc. for tourism and health.

“The local government will be in charge of identifying the beneficiaries of the training program,” Villanueva explained. “It will tap barangay officials in the selection and recruitment of the trainees and assist in ensuring their regular attendance, obedience to house rules, and completing of the training,” he added.

The local officials will also assist TESDA in evaluating the training output and process to continuously improve it. “We will also help ensure that competent trainers and resource persons are present and that instruction tools, material and methods are available to the trainees,” Villanueva said.

TESDA lauded the city government for allocating funds for the free education of out-of-school youth. “Education is always a worthy investment. At the end of the day, there is always a tenfold return for the scholars’ families and for the country,” Villanueva said.

At the end of the program, TESDA will also help in evaluating the employability of the graduates. –INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT, Manila Bulletin