By Ma. Cristina Arayata/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Isidro Lapeña on Wednesday noted that the agency’s partnership with the industries and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is a huge help to achieve their newest tagline, “Abot Lahat”.
In an interview over “Tech-Voc Track ay Swak!”, a radio program segment dedicated to feature services that TESDA offers, Lapeña said partnering with the industries enables TESDA to reach more people and at the same time assures employment for its trainees.
“Training will not serve its purpose if we could not provide employment to our trainees,” he remarked, adding that TESDA’s mandate is to provide training that will lead the trainees to a livelihood or job.
“Partnering with big companies has good results. Our trainees get employed immediately,” he said.
TESDA has been strengthening partnerships with multinational firms and also conducts consultative meetings with the League of Corporate Foundations.
Some companies provide scholarships, others donate a building, while others share their facilities. Some of them get TESDA’s trainees as their interns, which makes the trainees get exposed to high-tech facilities and get hired immediately.
Companies also benefit from partnering with TESDA, as the agency helps them train their people to avoid job mismatch. TESDA provides them provide the necessary training to their pool of workers, and also helps them recruit people.
Meanwhile, TESDA has a “Train to Build, Build, Build” project since 2018, with the goal of expanding the capacity of technical vocational education and training, train more skilled workers and address the need for more construction workers for the country’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
TESDA renewed its partnership with the DPWH last April for the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program. TESDA has been helping the DPWH in the training and assessment of heavy equipment operators since 2006.
With the renewed partnership, TESDA will enable DPWH engineers to be trainers and assessors. A crash course will be provided for them to prepare them as trainers and assessors of other skilled or qualified construction-related workers.
The DPWH, for its part, will provide practicum and administration venues, according to TESDA.
Lapeña said TESDA’s coordination with the DPWH helps the agency produce more skilled workers, particularly in the construction field.
“We do project-based onsite training through our coordination with the DPWH. TESDA trains workers using the equipment of construction companies or of the DPWH in this training,” he said.
The TESDA chief added that through this on-site training in construction sites, the trainees would not need to go to TESDA’s training centers.
“So this is huge help for us to achieve the ‘TESDA Abot Lahat’,” he noted.
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