TESDA assessment center opens at USJ-R Balamban

CEBU, Philippines - People seeking work at the largest ship-building company in the country, the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries Inc. of Balamban, Cebu, no longer need to go out of town to secure the vocational training papers necessary for lucrative employment.

This after the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority granted "assessment center status" to the Recoletos Industrial and Technological Training Center (RITTC) facility in Balamban and allowed it to issue, in behalf of TESDA, national certificates to those who complete vocational training.

The RITTC is the University of San Jose-Recoletos’s vocational training arm. It has training centers in Cebu City. Late last year, it opened a training facility attached to the USJ-R Balamban Campus, targeting mainly those seeking vocational employment with Tsuneishi and with the other locators of the Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc. (CIPDI).

The USJ-R Balamban campus is in an industry-academe partnership with Tsuneishi and CIPDI. Many Tsuneishi employees, as well as those working for other CIPDI locators send their children to school there.

The RITTC can issue TESDA National Certificates (NCs) for those who pass the training and certification examination for bread and pastry production, bookkeeping, computer hardware servicing and technical drafting.

"The NC is like a license. It means who have passed the government standard for the particular vocational skill that you trained in. It is recognized internationally," explained RITTC Director Dr. Mary Ann Roble.

The assessment center status granted to the RITTC will also benefit USJ-R Balamban’s K-12 graduates – the pioneering batch being the high school graduates of 2018, because those taking technical courses under the program’s vocational track can immediately take their national certification examinations, get certified and get employed.

"Because of this training… students (can work) right after they graduate in High school para maka ipon sa ilang college education," explained Buenafe Sta. Rita, TESDA assistant regional director of the RITTC’s training center operation in Balamban.

This is also a "nice set-up for Tsuneishi," she added.

But for Rev. Fr. Roland Cepe, OAR, the RITTC is "an apostolate of the Recollect Fathers" to out-of-school youths who were unable to secure regular degrees because of personal challenges like poverty.

"Para ma tagaan ug job opportunities kay ang reality dili tanan maka college ug maka tungtong sa high school," Cepe said.

Sta. Rita lauds the Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) the religious order that runs the USJ-R Balamban Campus and the RITTC, saying only four institutions in the third district which offers "specialized skills training program."

The campus and the training center, she said, impacts the overall K-12 initiative of the Department of Education positively.

"Because of this, mo daghan na ang maayo nga mga students. Pabor na ni sa parents kay maka work na ang mga bata for higher education," she explained. (FREEMAN)