TESDA graduates can now become entrepreneurs

MANILA, Philippines - After getting skills and competency training, graduates of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) can now become entrepreneurs.

TESDA Director General Guiling Mamondiong said the agency and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have forged an agreement for the implementation of Skills Training for Employment/Entrepreneurship Program (STEEP).

The agreement, according to Mamondiong, will provide opportunities to the graduates of TESDA’s skills training and similar scholarship programs to put up their own businesses through DTI’s Trabaho, Nesyo at Kabuhayan (TNK) program.

“The project aims to provide interventions through skills development by providing access to training on entrepreneurship to graduates of the TESDA program for self or wage employment to uplift their economic status,"  Mamondiong noted, adding that TESDA is coming out with a list of STEEP graduates and other similar scholarship programs and eventually provide entrepreneurship training.

Under the agreement, beneficiaries shall be selected from TESDA’s certified graduates using an instrument.

Entrepreneurship training will be provided to selected beneficiaries, subject to the usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations.

Beneficiaries will be assisted in availing themselves of micro-financing facilities, as well access to start-up capital for micro-enterprises.

The government will also facilitate business registration to beneficiaries who wish to engage in business.