Makati City 1st district congressional aspirant Jejomar Binay on Monday vowed to establish employment programs to his constituents, such as free skills training under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority through a scholarship grant.
“One of the first things I would do is to establish a scholarship fund with TESDA to provide free skills training to my constituents. They can choose which skills they want to develop and later on use to get employed or set up a livelihood,” said Binay, a former vice president.
Binay is running as the official candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance under the ticket of his daughter incumbent Makati Mayor Abigail Binay.
Prior to his election as vice president in 2010, he served as Makati mayor from 1986 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2010.
Binay said he wanted residents of the city’s first district to be equipped with skills and competencies that are in high demand in the job market. “I want more residents to get hired right away after training so they can earn a living and be self-reliant.”
During his stint as Makati mayor, the elder Binay championed new paradigms in education that promoted employability and entrepreneurship, especially among the youth.
“I have always believed that a diploma is not the be-all and end-all of education. The most relevant and tangible outcome of education is, of course, gainful employment,” Binay said.
With his full support, the city-run University of Makati became the pioneer institution in the country to adopt the Dualized University Education System under the stewardship of the late University president Tomas Lopez.
DUES is an educational and training strategy using duals or pairs, matching academic study with apprenticeship, university with industry, and classroom theory with real-world practice. It encourages ‘learning by doing’ and integrates a mix of academic and industry-led training aimed to provide a career-focused education.
Binay’s strong advocacy for public-private partnership paved the way to the continuing success of DUES in the development of highly competitive and employable UMak graduates. To date, the university has over 700 industry partners that provide on-the-job training to students and ready employment to graduates of UMak.
“One hundred percent employability is the ultimate measure of success of DUES, and it can only be made possible through our strong and sustained partnership with the private sector,” Binay said.
Over the years, UMak has registered above average passing rates in licensure examinations, particularly in Accountancy, Nursing and Education. The UMak College of Nursing has been ranked 9th oveall among the top nursing schools in the country.
In 2012, UMak accepted the challenge of piloting the K to 12 senior high school program of the Department of Education, and established the Higher School ng UMak. Since 2014, HSU has consistently achieved a 100-percent passing rate in the National Certification II and III assessment tests administered by TESDA.
HSU and seven other public senior high schools in the city offer various academic tracks namely Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Accountancy, Business and Management, Humanities and Social Science, General Academic Strand, and Technical-Vocational-Livelihood.