TESDA: Over 10M graduates under Aquino

MANILA, Philippines – The Technical Education Skill and Development Authority (TESDA) has produced over 10 million techvoc graduates for the past six years, majority of whom are certified as highly qualified to work here and abroad.

The agency has been providing quality technical-vocational education and training (TVET) leading to better employment and livelihood opportunities.

As of May 2016, TESDA recorded a total of 10,543,440 graduates of TVET from its institution-, enterprise-, community-based programs and its online programs, Isaac disclosed.

“From 2010 to May 2016, 6,002,843 individuals had been certified. The certification rate had risen from 83 percent in 2010 to 91 percent in 2015. With an average of 88.3 percent certification rate over six years, it shows that nine out of 10 assessed have been successfully certified,” she added.

For the past six years of the Aquino government, TESDA has strengthened its assessment and certification program, which are among the major pillars of the agency,

TESDA has intensified its review of existing training regulations and to date, Isaac said, there are 258 promulgated TRs.

Last Tuesday, TESDA gathered 3,000 techvoc trainees from Metro Manila to mark Trainees’ Day.

TESDA graduates are the face of highly competent and globally competitive Filipino workers.

She said TESDA was able to prove that tech-voc can be the first option, not just the fallback choice, because graduates are trained with the relevant skills that link them to jobs here and abroad.

“The real evidence of success is the transformation in the lives of the TVET graduates – because of skills that gave them confidence to face the world of work, and jobs that gave them reasons to dream for a better life,” Isaac said.

Last year, TESDA became ISO-certified nationwide for three of its regulatory programs: Standards Development, Program Registration, and Assessment and Certification.

The ISO Certification did not only improve TESDA’s systems and processes, but gave a big boost to the agency’s image in the country and abroad, Isaac said.

As a result, she said, more than 500 industry associations and companies have partnered with TESDA in the last six years.

She said even after the Aquino steps down from the presidency, TESDA will continue to stay the course of using TVET as an empowering tool that leads people to engage in decent and productive jobs.

Happy farewell for P-Noy

It was a happy farewell for President Aquino at TESDA that he made popular, according to Isaac.

The President gave TVET credibility that opened up a lot of opportunities for Filipinos in terms of employment and livelihood, Isaac said.

Joel Villanueva, former TESDA head who ran and won in the senatorial race as “TESDA Man,” noted it would not have become an effective agency without the full support of Aquino.

Villanueva asked the crowd of mostly trainees to give the President a round of applause for his efforts to make TESDA productive.

Under his administration, the roots of poverty were addressed that included lack of education and training for the poor for them to find jobs or sources of livelihood, the President said.

He said basic education was reformed and medical assistance provided by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. was expanded.

The conditional cash transfer program, Aquino said, was also tied with other social services to ensure that students in the family would not drop out of school and both mothers and children would avail of maternal and child care from health centers.

Educational institutions coordinated with various industries to guide students as to the courses they could take in college to avoid jobs mismatch.

“Now let us go to TESDA. This is a very clear example of a positive transformation not only of the agency but in the lives of many Filipinos,” Aquino said, citing the case of Cristina Reyes, a former overseas Filipino worker, who managed to get back on her feet after being maltreated abroad by studying massage therapy at TESDA. Reyes now owns several spas.

But the President said some TESDA graduates were already earning much more than him as Chief Executive and that various other programs like the Sari-Sari Store Training and Access to Resources Program or STAR Program of TESDA and Coca Cola Philippines that benefited 43,000 sari-sari store owners.

“This is probably the last time I will be facing you  here in TESDA as President, I wholeheartedly thank you for the hard work, strength and dedication to move daang matuwid (straight path) forward,” Aquino said.