Sen. Joel Villanueva (Photo from his Facebook page)
Sen. Joel Villanueva on Monday hailed the approval of the technical-vocational bill on third and final reading in the House of Representatives.
The Senate version – Senate Bill No. 1431, or the proposed Tulong Trabaho Act – was approved on third and final reading in the Senate on May 5, 2017.
According to Villanueva, the bill seeks to narrow employment gap by providing free technical-vocational training and improving the skills of workers who choose not to go to college.
“As the principal author and sponsor of the bill’s counterpart version, we would like to underscore that tech-voc has proven to be a viable option especially for those who want immediate employment” Villanueva, who is vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, said in a statement.
He noted that seven out of 10 tech-voc graduates “easily find decent jobs due to the high demand of skilled workers here and abroad.”
According to him, students from poor families choose to take tech-voc courses because they can’t afford to the cost of going to college.
The measure, which seeks to establish a Tulong-Trabaho Fund, also has the possibility of providing additional financial assistance such as transportation allowance and laboratory fees, the senator added.
The bill also promises to address the problme of job-skills mismatch by establishing a Philippine Labor Force Competencies Competitiveness Program that is based on Labor Market Intelligence Reports.
“We thank and congratulate our colleagues in both Houses for helping us push for this measure,” Villanueva said. “We believe that if the government makes tech-voc education free for students, our people especially the youth, will have a brighter future ahead.” /atm