Pinoy TVET

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...

Competency assessment is the mechanism being used by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA to determine whether a certain worker meets the minimum industry standard for a particular job (or more precisely, qualification) as indicated in the training regulations.  At first glance, it appears that competency assessment is nothing but the final hurdle every graduate of TVET or any practitioner of a blue-collar worker should pass in order to be regarded as a legitimate practitioner of a particular qualification.  (After passing it, a TVET graduate or skilled worker can apply for a national certificate or certificate of competency depending on the the competencies he passed during the assessment.  These certificates then can be used to vouch for the skills of the person.) Competency assessment, however, has inherent complexities that TVET graduates and blue-collar workers have to deal with. First, most companies in the Philippines at present do ...