Tesda Secretary Joel Villanueva meets with technical-vocational students of Benedicto College.
(CDN PHOTO/ NORMAN MENDOZA)
Around 500 high school graduates received scholarship training certificates, graduation certificates in an event held at the Benedicto College and University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F).
The scholarship certificates entitle the students to enroll in any of these courses, such as welding, housekeeping, bread and pastry making, computer hardware servicing and culinary.
The women beneficiaries of Sari-sari Store Training and Access to Resources (STAR) program, which is a partnership between Tesda and Coca-Cola Philippines for the women sari-sari store owners, were also recognized during the occasion after completing the training.
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Secretary Joel Vilanueva, in an interview with reporters, said there are thousands of job vacancies abroad, especially in the Middle East.
Our challenge today is the lack of trainers and assessors to train more skilled workers,” he said.
Tesda is allocating funds to train more teachers and trainers to accommodate more students. Tesda is targeting 15,000 students to enroll in technical-vocational courses this year. Last year, there were only 10,000 enrollees. Around 800,000 high school students are also expected to take up technical-vocational courses with the implementation of K-to-12 program this coming school year.