TESDA launches training academy
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is optimistic that the country will produce more skilled workers and trainers whose capabilities can meet the demands of the 21st century with the recent launching of the National TVET (technical-vocational education and training) Training Academy (NTTA).
TESDA Director General Guiling Mamondiong said that the NTTA will offer trainers development program, a response to the demand for quality trainers who will manage and implement the TVET system in the Philippines.
Mamondiong also expressed his long-term vision that the NTTA will be adopted as ASEAN Trainers’ Training Academy (ATTA) in the coming years.
“I think it is achievable because we are now pursuing the establishment of ASEAN TVET Development Council. If this is organized, then we need to have a support service in terms of training institutions and it will be (ATTA),” Mamondiong said during the launching ceremony in Marikina City.
Mamondiong also said that with the launch of NTTA, he hopes it will bring back the Marikina City “into the map of leading institutions in Asia.”
“We know that Marikina City is known all over the world for so many products,” Mamondiong said. Dubbed as the “Shoe Capital of the Philippines,” Marikina City is best known for the production of top quality footwear.
The TESDA chief also said NTTA’s launch is one way to address the degrading facilities of the agency.
“When I assume leadership of TESDA in 2016, I visited schools, regional and provincial TESDA training centers... Most of these technology-based intstitutions of TESDA are constraint from quality training commissions due to lack of facility and tools and equipment,” Mamondiong said.
In a previous interview with the Manila Bulletin, Mamondiong rued the lack of facilities and equipment in the technical-vocational institutes that he visited in the most remote areas in the country.
This, he said, could possibly lead to the “collapse” of the agency.
Meanwhile, several organizations such as Colombo Plan Staff College, International Labor Organization, and Daikin Airconditioning Philippines signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TESDA to ensure its trainers development.
Mamondiong said the trainers development program will be provided as an in-service training supplementary to the Philippine TVET Trainers Qualifications Framework. Trainers are comprised of administrators, supervisors and teaching personnel who are handling classroom teachings or workshops.