Salceda seeks creation of schools for specialized skills

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda. File photo

MANILA, Philippines — Albay Rep. Joey Salceda is seeking the creation of “Meister Schools” or senior high schools where courses for highly-specialized, higher-order industrial and technical skills will be taught.

House Bill No. 6287 seeks to produce graduates who can find employment in highly-technical, high-skill functions in the manufacturing sector and other high-value industries, such as energy, machinery, mechatronics, and telecommunications.

Salceda said that the bill was modeled after technical-vocational schools in Korea that produce “meisters” or master-craftsmen.

“The effect that Meister Schools had in Korea was dramatic. 85% placement of first batch/generation or those who signed employment contracts,” Salceda said.

“In the first two years of implementation, the employment rate of vocational high school graduates increased from 19% in 2010 to 42% in 2012. Imagine, as a tech-voc graduate, you can work first, and decide to go to college later if you think it’s for you. But income-wise, you don’t have to go to college anymore,” the lawmaker added.

Salceda said that he would rather have highly-skilled technical-vocational graduates “than give out so many college degrees that are functionally useless as far as our skills gap is concerned.”

“Maganda lang pakinggan na may Bachelor’s Degree, pero minsan napakalayo sa kailangan ng bansa [Sometimes it’s just pleasant to hear of someone having a Bachelor’s Degree, but sometimes they are getting courses far from what our country needs],” Salceda said.

Under the bill, each Meister School shall be governed by a Board of Trustees, with the Chair of the Board appointing a Director which would head the School.

Edited by JPV