Curriculum review to address skills-job mismatch
This 2022, we have allotted 50,000 slots for our farm school scholarship program or agriculture program
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) welcomed the plan of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to revisit the country’s education curriculum to further enhance workforce job readiness, competitiveness and relevance.
Accordingly, the agency has been strengthening its industry boards and its coordination with industry associations so that these will be more involved in the development of competency standards and training regulations.
The agency has actively engaged industry partners in developing the content of training regulations for our workers and tech-voc trainers. This will help ensure further that what is being taught in tech-voc institutions are the exact skills needed by the industry.
More college students and graduates have enrolled in TESDA tech-voc courses for the last five years.
On average, 47 percent of technical vocational education and training (TVET) graduates had a college degree or were studying in college before enrolling in TVET courses, according to TESDA’s Study on the Employment of Technical Vocational Education and Training Graduates (SETG).
SETG attributed this rise of tech-voc enrollment to college graduates not having the skills required by the industry brought about by the lack of actual handson training and exposure to updated equipment.
Deputy Director General for TESDA Operations Aniceto D. Bertiz III said in order to address this skills-job mismatch, TESDA has been implementing enterprise-based training (EBT) programs through its “EBT to the Max” promotion campaign.
“These enable our trainees to receive instruction in two venues: The institution for their theoretical subjects and in-company to apply what they had learned and to be familiar with tools and equipment commonly used in industry,” he said.
The graduates of “EBT to the Max” programs, Bertiz pointed out, have consistently reported higher employment rates than most other tech-voc programs.
Rice extension services
In a related development, TESDA has launched 50,000 training slots under The Rice Extension Services Program (RESP) for all rice farmers in the country, according to Bertiz.
“This 2022, we have allotted 50,000 slots for our farm school scholarship program or agriculture program,” Bertiz announced during the Laging Handa public briefing.
The official said the purpose of the program is to produce “highly skilled” Filipino farmers, which can lead to an improved local agriculture industry.
The slots, Bertiz said, will not only benefit the farmers, but their relatives, fisher folks, displaced workers, and other Filipinos who want to improve their agricultural skills as well.
Bertiz noted that more than 50,000 graduated under the RESP from 2020 to 2021.
TESDA has also launched added various language courses to boost the delivery of language skills training to all Filipino workers in the country and abroad.
It will offer other languages like Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Italian, and French.