Tesda’s P2.6B good for 260K scholars this year

Hoping to produce some 260,000 “job-ready” youths, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) has set a P2.6- billion budget for free skills training programs this year.

Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva said the increased funding for technical-vocational education and training (TVET) scholarships was aimed at meeting the rising demand abroad for skilled labor.

The P2.6-billion fund for scholarships will benefit 263,900 people, who will be given free TVETs to prepare them for employment.

Of the total amount, P2 billion is set aside for Tesda’s training-for-work scholarship program (TWSP) which targets 210,526 scholars this year, while P440.7 million will go to the skills training of over 32,000 people under the agency’s special training for employment program (STEP).

Some P200 million is set aside for the Private Education Student Financial Assistance (Pesfa), which would benefit some 20,000 high school graduates, he said.

“We have scholarships for high school graduates, out-of-school youth, workers and even professionals who want to learn new skills. We want to put them in good training positions so that when they graduate (from TVET), they will be competitive in the work force,” he said in a statement.

The TWSP program, for example, entitles scholars to free training in agrifishery, agribusiness or agroindustrial sectors; tourism; information technology-business process management; semiconductor and electronics; automotives; general infrastructure; and other priority manufacturing industries, logistics and new and emerging sectors.

The STEP is geared more into training for self-employment or community-based, service-oriented enterprises.

Pesfa extends financial assitance to poor but deserving students in tech-voc courses. Jeannette I. Andrade