PCCI ties up with TESDA for nationwide job training

A NATIONAL business chamber is partnering with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to create a nationwide, pre-employment training system.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on Thursday signed a memorandum of agreement with TESDA to train students both in school and within a company.

Priority sectors include agriculture, hotel and restaurant/ tourism, construction, and information and communications technology (ICT), PCCI said in a statement on Wednesday and confirmed on Thursday.

PCCI said that through the dual education program, students who have taken their technical and vocational training will have a combination of practical, on-the-job, and enterprise-based training and theoretical education.

“This model has proven to increase chances of employment in developed countries like Germany,” the statement said.

The program is expected to give business associations, chambers, enterprises and schools (or

ACES) the ability to take active roles in developing competency standards and curriculum and training plans, as well as conducting assessments of and certifications for the trainees.

TESDA Director-General Secretary Isidro S. Lapeña, PhD., CSEE, PCCI President Ambassador Benedicto V. Yujuico, and PCCI HRDF President Dr. Alberto P. Fenix Jr. Also attending the MOA signing are top officials of PCCI and TESDA signed the agreement.

The dual education training program was piloted by PCCI in 2014 in the hotel and restaurant sector in Laiya, Batangas.

The program is now being replicated in other parts of the country, after local partnerships between the private and public sector in Laiya made way for the integration of the program in the curriculum of the Department of Education in the area.

“We’ve completed the training for the hotel and restaurant sector and is being replicated in five chambers in Bicol, Pampanga, Quezon City, Tacloban-Leyte and Oriental Mindoro,” Mr. Fenix said. —