Study notes ‘limited effectiveness’ of Tesda program

By: Roy Stephen C. Canivel – @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan 16, 2018

The government’s technical, vocational education and training (TVET) falls short in meeting the demands of the local IT-BPM industry, a study showed, citing the “limited effectiveness” in giving students the proper skills to make it in the business.

This was according to a study by Nicholas Price and Christopher Caboverde at the Asian Institute of Management Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness.

Aiming to assess the effectiveness of the TVET, the study found out that Filipino applicants lacked certain competencies, particularly in English communication and critical thinking skills.

Given the demand of the multibillion-dollar industry, the study said that the industry had been trying to meet requirements by imposing a “learning-by-doing” culture. This means that companies hire Filipinos even if they don’t have college degrees, training them on the job instead.

For its part, the government helps in meeting this demand through TVET, which is being administered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).

However, through key informant interviews with various stakeholders, the study noted that companies did not necessarily look for graduates of Tesda, “in part because they feel that the training does not impact the quality of applicants.”

Tesda also has “limited data” on the effectiveness of its training programs, with the study noting that it couldn’t tell how many graduates actually got into the sectors they trained for.

“Likewise, training content is not as responsive to industry demand as it could be, with long delays before [training regulations] can be introduced or revised,” the study read. A training regulation serves as a basis for the minimum standards and competencies needed in a certain field.

The study noted that representatives of the industry—particularly those in the subsectors of contact centers and health care information management—average only 6 percent.