Skills development and training in the country are set to be further strengthened after the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the business community forged an agreement that will address skills-job mismatch and unemployment.
Last Mar. 14, TESDA Director General Danilo P. Cruz and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) President Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to provide for more strategic policy reforms in TVET that are aligned with industry requirements to address issues in the labor force.
The partnership aims to intensify regular consultations and dialogues with employer and business membership organizations in the design, development, implementation, assessment, and evaluation of area-based and demand-driven technical education and skills development.
Likewise, the project aims to further promote and boost the implementation of TESDA’s enterprise-based training (EBT) programs, and the establishment of Industry Boards (IBs) at the local and national levels.
In his message, DG Cruz emphasized the need to intensify the push for greater industry involvement – from the prioritization of skills to competency standards development and curriculum development to implementation of training interventions, as well as job facilitation.
“We can advance Philippine TVET as we create a future-ready and globally competitive Filipino workforce together, let us actualize our goal of providing relevant, accessible, high quality, efficient technical education and skills development to the Filipinos and contribute to the country’s economic growth and prosperity.”
TESDA has been partnering with various stakeholders to further advance the country’s TVET sector.
In 2022, TESDA signed some 649 memoranda of agreement, 16 memoranda of understanding, and two memoranda of partnerships with various public and private organizations.
Meanwhile, Ortiz-Luis shared businesses play a crucial role in employment generation and provision.
He added that industry-led technical skills education can effectively and efficiently address skills-job mismatch and unemployment.
“I am confident that this partnership will be instrumental in contributing to employment and national development toward inclusive economic growth for the Filipino people,” Ortiz-Luis said.
Also present during the signing were TESDA Deputy Directors General Aniceto Bertiz III and Vidal Villanueva; TESDA Directors Ma. Magdalena Butad and Juliet Orozco; and, ECOP officials led by Antonio Sayo, Vice President, and Vivien Co-Say, Governor and TESDA Board Member.
