KAPANGAN, Benguet – The province will pilot test the implementation of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) on Wheels program or the so-called mobile TESDA for more individuals to access trainings they need to acquire the appropriate skills that will allow them to be gainfully employed.
Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap reported he sourced out the vehicle that will be used for the implementation of the TESDA on Wheels program to sustain the conduct of mobile skills training in the province’s 13 towns to ensure that interested individuals will no longer have to travel for hours and spend so much in lodging and food just to complete their desired sills trainings on their chosen fields.
The lawmaker disclosed that the bus was to be used for his earlier plan to establish a mobile dialysis center that will be going around the province to cater to the dialysis requirements of kidney patients but health experts did not recommend the same because of possible complications that might affect the efficiency of the dialysis machines that will be installed in the aforesaid vehicle.
Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between Rep. Yap and TESDA Director-General Isidro La Peña, the bus for the implementation of the TESDA on Wheels program will be good for 5 years to ensure its sustainability and efficiency in delivering the needed series to the trainees from the 13 municipalities.
However, Yap assured the people of Benguet that he will work out the immediate replacement of this bus after the lapse of the 5-year period to guarantee the quality services that will be provided to the trainees wanting to acquire additional skills for their gainful employment.
Congressman Yap pointed out that aside from achieving a higher level of education through the various private and public higher education institutions in the different parts of the Cordillera, it is also important for the youth to venture in acquiring the appropriate skills through the training available by the agency for them to be productive in their desired activities as part of coping with the negative effect of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to their economic life.
Yap, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, expressed his gratitude to Secretary La Peña for allowing the TESDA on Wheels program to be pilot tested in the province and for assuring that the implementation of the same will be replicated in other provinces in the country once funding will be made available under the agency next year so that the buses that will be used will be procured pursuant to standards and specifications needed to hurdle difficult terrains in the various provinces where the buses will be based. By HENT
