Tesda to train tech-voc trainers

Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva: Priority funding. tesda.gov.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines—The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is prioritizing the training of trainers of technical and vocational courses to improve their skills in the face of rapidly changing technologies.

Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva said the trainers training program would get priority funding this year under Tesda’s Training for Work Scholarship Program.

“TVET (Technical vocational education and training) systems in the Philippines and worldwide are under pressure to deal with challenges such as changing technologies, emerging in-demand jobs and new competencies. The trainers should be able to impart these to their trainees,” he said.

“Training the trainers is an investment in people who are on the frontline of our programs,” he added.

In the first five months of the year, around 1,700 TVET tech-voc trainers nationwide underwent the Trainers Methodology Program course.

Only 76 percent of the trainers who completed the course, however, passed the competency assessment conducted by a three-member panel of experts.

Those who passed received their National TVET Trainers Certificate.

Tesda said the trainers development program seeks to upgrade the competencies of TVET trainers as training facilitators, competency assessors, developers and designers.

There are nearly 25,000 certified trainers nationwide handling various tech-voc courses in 4,596 tech-voc education and training institutions.

Of these, 4,472 are private training institutions while 124 are run by Tesda.

The trainers training program course is currently offered at 47 tech-voc training institutions, of which 80 percent are run by Tesda while the rest are mostly privately owned.

Most of the tech-voc training centers that offer the trainers development course are located in Regions I (Ilocos) and VIII (Eastern Visayas) and the National Capital Region.

Earlier, Tesda estimated that it needed to train 10,000 more assessors and trainers for tech-voc skills once senior high school is implemented nationwide in 2016.