TESDA online program getting popular among students
Amid the rising cost of education, more technicalvocational (tech-voc) students are now opting to pursue courses online.
Over 1.2 million students have enrolled and completed tech-voc courses, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) reported yesterday.
TESDA director general Guiling Mamondiong said the TESDA Online Program (TOP) has recorded a total of 1,223,857 registered users for over six years.
“Of the total figure of TOP registered users, 894,390 have enrolled in various courses and at least 441,052 of them have completed an online course,” Mamondiong noted.
In May 2012, the government launched TOP in a bid to make technical education more accessible to Filipino citizens through the use of information and communication technologies.
“It aims to bring technical education one click away from students, out-of-school youth, unemployed adults and overseas Filipino workers,” Mamondiong said.
At present, TOP offers 58 online courses from various industry sectors, with basic computer operation (Intel Easy Steps), web development using HTML5 and CSS3, preparing cakes, providing housekeeping services to guests and the STAR online training program having been among the popular courses in the last three years.
In the traditional face-toface learning, Mamondiong said students are required to be physically present at the training center.
TESDA school-based programs are offered for free, but the others costs such as transportation and food allowances are shouldered by the students.
With TOP, Mamondiong said other costs of studying tech-voc can be reduced dramatically by taking the courses online.
The online courses available in TOP are also offered for free, allowing students to enroll in multiple classes at the same time.
Based on a study conducted by the Philippine Institute on Development Studies, 56 percent of the respondents identified skills upgrading and enhancement as the number one reason for enrolling in TOP, while 18.8 percent of the respondents enroll in TOP for employment purposes.
Filipinos abroad who took tech-voc courses through TOP posted a high certification rate of 89.66 percent.
“These results show beyond doubt the success of digitizing the delivery of tech-voc education and training courses through TOP, an effective alternative learning system for enhancing and acquiring new skills for employment and promotion – at your own pace, space and time – at no cost,” Mamondiong said.
–