Tesda sees 5.3-M contribution to skilled labor force by 2016

MANILA, Philippines — By 2016, a total of 5.3 million certified graduates are expected to join the labor sector as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) continues to pursue its goal of becoming the country’s prime provider of quality technical-vocational education.

TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva, during a recently-held General Directorate Conference, gave the marching orders to top-level officials to beef up enrolment and employment of graduates, thresh out operational issues and improve the quality of courses to meet their targets.

“By the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016, we would like to be remembered as having contributed 5.3 million TESDA-certified workers or TESDA “Specialistas” as we proudly call them, who will find work or man-age their own small businesses and earn incomes that they plough back to the country through expenditures and savings,” Villanueva stressed.

Villanueva added that the direction TESDA is taking is to reach the grassroots and empower them with quality technical education and skills development interventions leading to employment of training beneficiaries, providing them incomes to improve the quality of their lives and living conditions of communities.

The TESDA chief called the attention of agency’s officials to meet the numbers of persons enrolled, graduates, assessed and certified and eventually monitored as employed and with incomes.

He instructed them to make available relevant details on the courses or qualifications, and assess which are among the key employment generators in a particular area.

TESDA should also explore convergence initiatives with other government agencies and encourage them to pursue public-private partnerships in implementing technical education and skills development activities which could help alleviate poverty, including the adoption of municipalities identified by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) as focus areas.

Villanueva cited the agency’s gains in the past year that he said helped it reach new frontiers, including the PNoy Bayanihan School Furniture Production Project that converted confiscated logs into school furniture.

The project was in partnership with the Department of Education, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

TESDA also participated in the K-to-12 Summit, which helped it define its role under the expanded Basic Education Curriculum. It also came to the aid of areas stricken by calamity, particularly through its project that gathered water lilies and transformed them into materials for bags.

Recently, it launched its first classroom on wheels through the Mobile Training Plus Park and Train bus, which featured a 100-seater vehicle equipped with computers for mobile training. –INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT, Manila Bulletin