TESDA’s tarnished stewardship

The Don Bosco technical and vocational education and training (TVET) academic track is regarded as one of the better models in the country that afford Filipino youth who are interested in learning any of the offered skills with a sure job.

The academic program’s success does not only rely on grounded learning principles that ensure graduates are ready to move to the next level, either of employment or entrepreneurship, but also on a solid partnership with companies that support its programs.

Over the last seven decades, the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco-Philippines has devoted its band of religious brothers to uplifting the lives of poor youth in the country. It now operates or is in partnership with over 20 TVET centers all over the country whose graduates continue to be coveted by prospective local employers.

More importantly, its TVET program has gained the support of over 60 local companies and international foundations by providing scholarship funding to deserving out-of-school youth. Don Bosco claims to graduate 6,000 yearly before the pandemic lockdowns.

Don Bosco and other private sector initiatives, like that of the Philippine Business for Education, are successful examples of how a solid commitment can produce solid results, with very little help and support from the government.

Incompetence and corruption

The Technical Skills and Development Authority (TESDA), the national government’s steward for TVET learning, may find value in many of these successful learning models if it truly wishes to fulfill a transformational role in managing and supervising technical education and skills development in the country.

TESDA has been hounded by incompetence and corruption for too long, a cocktail that has deprived millions of Filipinos with a chance to improve their lives and laid to waste billions of pesos of taxpayer money ever since its establishment in 1994.

The agency has become the new diploma mill of the country, graduating thousands of scholars who sometimes can receive a certificate for simply being in the classroom when the attendance roll call is called.

Let’s face it. Do prospective employers really care if a job applicant has a TESDA-stamped national certification if the training center is not Don Bosco or the few limited,  but credible learning institutions?

Underspent budget

For the better part of last year, as a result of the pandemic-instigated learning discontinuity, TESDA’s 57 administered schools, 60 training centers, many enterprise-based dual training programs, and community-based training classrooms through local governments were emptied of students.

Understandably, during the 2021 budget deliberations, TESDA reportedly spent only about 40 percent of its P12.97 billion allocations by the last quarter of the year. Corollary to this, enrollment in TESDA training programs were less than 10 percent of the revised target of 158,000 scholarships. We’re not even talking about the quality of graduates.

A recent finding by the Commission on Audit (COA) indicated that less than six percent of the estimated 75,000 Special Employment Training Program (STEP) graduates of TESDA in 2019 found jobs, a clear indication of a helter-skelter admission, training, and job placement system in place. In effect, it was like wasting almost all of the scholarship subsidies.

Worse, we can assume that all other TESDA graduates – not the ghost scholars that have been widely rumored plaguing the TESDA system – have wasted their time attending classes, plunging many of the desperate into further desperation.

Radical transformation needed

TESDA needs a radical transformation that will generate the desired level of manpower competence among Filipinos who have not completed K-12 education, dropped out of higher learning, or simply want to pursue technology or vocational learning.

The clamor for employable job skills is at fever pitch, and TESDA needs to act quickly and effectively to be able to channel to good use its budget allotment this year. More so during this pandemic, a closer interaction between employment providers and seekers must be forged.

More online courses must be made available that will support bridging skills. TESDA spends billions of pesos on printed toolkits, but which could easily be made available online, thus allowing the government to allocate these funds to improving TVET programs.

The private sector needs to be given a bigger role in setting the direction of technical and vocational learning, which is rapidly changing today given the technological advancements called for by the world’s march towards a fourth industrial revolution.

We need to put together the best education minds, not only to ensure that the numerous public TVET schools churn out quality graduates who can easily find jobs, but are also better equipped for the future challenges that confront the global work force.

An OFW’s luggage

At the start of the year, a returning Filipino overseas worker lost her two suitcases when these were mistakenly loaded on another bus set for another destination by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Her sister, Glenda Valdez, sent me a letter asking for help. Included as lost belongings was a hand carry luggage containing precious documents and cash. Despite pleas for help, the returning Filipina worker’s belongings were never recovered.

While the unfortunate incident may be considered an exception rather than the rule, OWWA and other government agencies that marshal returning Filipinos and even incoming foreigners into quarantine must improve on their systems to avoid similar horrifying experiences.

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.