Pinoy TVET

The apprenticeship program is one of the means private companies use to generate skilled workers for their specific needs despite mismatches between their requirements and the skills possessed by job applicants.  A training modality under what are classified as enterprise-based training (others include learnership and on-the-job training), trainees learn by observing and learning from experienced skilled workers inside the company.  Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director-general Sec. Joel Villanueva recently encouraged private firms to step up their participation in the apprenticeship program as a means of getting workers because "the best place to acquire skills is in the workplace".  ( Manila Bulletin , September 3, 2011) Considering apprenticeship as a generator of skilled workers involves several things for the firm.  The following are some of them: Are the competencies and skills needed by the firm not available in the present pool o...

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 ...

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...

Advocacy and promotion is one of the constant programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).  Through the years, and through many directors general, it has tried to project an image to the public through purchase of media block times, information caravans, industry-government organization partnerships, distribution of literature intended for the masses and similar activities.  In all these, there seems to be basic questions in the public's mind it tried and continues to try to answer.  Among them: Is TESDA training?  Even before TESDA became TESDA (that is, before National Manpower and Youth Council, Department of Education's Bureau of Technical Vocational Education (BTVE), and the Department of Labor and Employment's Apprenticeship programs were fused under one authority through Republic Act 7796), the most prominent body for technical training was, well, equivalent to training in the public's mind.  And rightly so.  Co...

As another very strong typhoon leaves the Philippine area of responsibility (16 dead, PhP21.3 million damages to roads, bridges and irrigation facilities in Cagayan alone; Philippine Daily Inquirer , August 29, 2011), local government units and various government agencies are scrambling to put into place activities that are intended to help the affected provinces get back to their feet.  In most cases, the immediate concerns include the restoration of road networks, electricity, water facilities and communication lines.  After these however, the concerns will begin to move on to helping the local economy recover from the damages to crops, loss of properties and paralysis of business activities. To help them do this, local government units can implement quick response programs which, in essence,are economic recovery packages that involves various government agencies and partner private and non-government organizations.  For local government units that have already tried ...

Due to the present chaos in the Middle East thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are expected to return home. While many of these workers will go back to the oil-rich region once the situation stabilizes, they may not return to the same job or company they used to work for.  Others might try to apply for work in other more stable countries such as Canada or Australia, especially if they have already acquired the necessary work experience required by these countries. Many others, of course, will return home simply to wait for the situation to settle down and return to the same company. This means that, whether these workers realize it or not, they will need to have training while they are in the Philippines. The training that returning OFWs will need could be one or a combination of two or more of the following: Training in qualifications related to what they already have. For example, a welder who had extensive experience in oil and gas might want to get some tra...

With the effects of the financial crisis taking its toll among businesses not only in international economic centers but also here in the Philippines, more and more would be entrepreneurs and existing business people are thinking of putting up businesses that are mainly based on the Internet. Internet-based business is cheaper to put up (mainly, you only spend for a domain name and server space, in contrast to spending for rental of a physical space or constructing your own building), doesn't need to be closed and opened everyday (it is always open once you upload your website on a server); and doesn't need to have sales assistants, store clerks and similar personnel. A major gap in TVET courses now in the Philippines, especially those dealing with entrepreneurship, is the minimal attention given to competencies that one needs to put up an online business.  Partly because of this, most Philippine companies that thrive online are also big mortar-and-glass companies that have...