Pinoy TVET

Ever since the establishment of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA, private sector participation and investment in technical vocational education and training (TVET) has been encouraged.  The thinking is that, since the private sector is the major provider and end-user of TVET, it should invest more in TVET. However, it should be pointed out that private sector investment already comprises the majority of investment in TVET.  In 2002, for example, about 54 percent of investment in TVET came from the private sector.  It is however, interesting to note that more than half of this (around 53 percent or $58 million) came from the trainees themselves who paid for their training.  Meanwhile, companies invested $32 million (around 30 percent of the private sector investment) and non-government organizations or NGOs invested $14 million (around 13 percent). (" Investment in Technical Vocational Education and Training in the Philippines ," p....

The Philippine government has been integrating some sort of technical-vocational skills in basic education.  For many years now, parts of competencies found in the current Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (or TESDA) training regulations of courses such as crop production, horticulture, tailoring, carpentry and commercial cooking have been included in elementary and high school subjects one way or another.  Recently though, the Department of Education has decided to fully insert whole qualifications for National Certificate Level I (for most qualifications) and National Certificate Level II (for a few) in the high school curriculum. (High school students will be submitted to TESDA competency assessments after finishing the qualifications.) In fact, more than half a billion pesos has been allocated for continuing the implementation of this program during the next several years. ( Philippine Daily Inquirer , September 9, 2011) Agri-Fishery Sector as Priorit...

Buying training is often like buying a new house: you get something valuable but you live with the consequences for a long time.  Despite this, many people enroll in TVET courses without proper perspective.  Part of the blame goes to the individual trainee himself, to common perceptions of TVET, to how schools market their courses and indeed how the TVET sector sees itself in relation to the labor market. The Person Himself Many trainees of TVET enroll in TVET as a last recourse (perhaps because they did not pass the college entrance test or perhaps because they do not have the money to enroll in bachelor's degree courses) and thus think little about whether the course fits their aptitudes and interests; whether there is demand for the graduates of that course during the next several years (and thus ensure that they have consistent career paths); whether their physical conditions are suited for the rigors of the job that will result from the course; and whether the career...