BAGUIO CITY – The government is earmarking more than P60 billion annually starting 2018 to support the technical-vocational (tech-voc) scholarship requirements of at least one hundred scholars every barangay in the country, Deputy Director-General Diosdado Padilla of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) said here recently.
Padilla revealed the agency will select 100 to 200 qualified tech-voc scholars per barangay to provide them with skills and knowledge that can qualify them for work once assessed for their competencies after training.
“We already communicated the matter to our local officials to be ready once the Barangay Kasanayan para sa Kaunlaran at Kapayapan program of the Duterte administration will be in full swing in the coming months. We assess the needs of prospective scholars are the barangay level and refer them to the nearest technical-vocational education institutions for appropriate training,” Padilla stressed.
Padilla was in town to share the new direction and priorities of the new administration to all technical-vocational educational training (TVET) stakeholders, particularly the target beneficiaries.
According to him, the generated outputs from the different regional consultations will be submitted to the TESDA leadership for processing, evaluation, and assessment prior to the issuance of orders on the new direction of TVET in the next six years.
Padilla said the agency will have to make do with the budget earmarked by the budget department for its programs and projects next year but TESDA will make sure that the P60 billion requirement to bankroll the 100 to 200 scholars per barangay for the over 42,000 barangays in the country will be incorporated in the 2018 national budget to meet the desired significant growth in TVET scholars that will allow them to have gainful employment in the future.
He added TESDA regional and provincial offices are now conducting barangay skills mapping in the different barangays in order to get the priority needs of the prospective scholars so that the agency could also pinpoint the areas where they will undergo their prescribed training once the program is implemented.
Padilla urged interested technical-vocational scholars to visit the nearest TESDA regional and provincial offices and inquire about the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) so they can select which of the available slots is suitable to their needs that will allow them to pursue their desired competencies and eventually acquire a national competency certification that can facilitate their employment, either locally or overseas.
By HENT
