CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Oct. 20 (PNA) -– About 5,000 students and out-of-school youths in this trading hub would benefit from the Php32 million intended for technical-vocational (tech-voc) courses offered by the Technical Education, Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) here, the local TESDA office said on Monday.
TESDA Secretary Joel Villanueva personally handed over the check to the Cagayan De Oro City Mayor during a turnover rites here recently with an optimism that out-of-school-youth and other interested individual could benefit the program.
Villanueva said that TESDA has now over 300,000 students who are enrolled in various vocational courses nationwide, 15 courses are for free while seven other courses could be downloaded online.
He said that TESDA is for job generation and for the transformation of lives of people, especially to the less fortunate individuals that need attention from the government.
Villanueva said that TESDA is also into strengthening community based interventions and even online means in order to reach out the present programs of the government to alleviate poverty.
He said that the program invites any interested individual in TESDA’s community intervention programs in the hope that the citizenry, including the retirees, become productive.
Villanueva said that TESDA have already helped a lot in improving the status of the poor in many instances.
He cited the case of a certain Rey Caseres, a graduate of automotive mechanic of TESDA who now works in Perth, Australia with a monthly earnings of about Php200,000.
The TESDA Secretary also said that there is also a great demand in the Information Technology – Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector, particularly the call center agents, 2D, 3D animators among others.
He said that the advantage of getting a National Certificate (NC) from TESDA is that the certificate is recognized internationally since TESDA is a certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
With the integration of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) 2015, TESDA have also aligned and upgraded new curriculum in a bid for TESDA graduates to compete with other South East Asian nations.
Villanueva said that the implementation of the K-12 program of the Department of Education, TESDA has integrated the tech-voc curriculum with the students last two years in order to receive TESDA certificates on graduation.
He said that a K-12 graduate would now be qualified to work in the skilled sector after graduation because of the vocational courses that TESDA has integrated under the K-12 program of the DepEd. (PNA)