Coleen de Leon earns a livelihood as a dressmaker. It has become a primary source of income for her as as she is able to accept dress repairs from her neighbors from time to time.
Coleen is just one of thousands of graduates of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority also known as TESDA.
Established through the enactment by President Fidel V. Ramos of Republic Act No. 7796 on Aug. 25, 1994, also known as the “Technical Education and Skills Development Act of 1994,” TESDA aims to encourage the full participation of and mobilize the industry, labor, local government units and technical-vocational institutions in the skills development of the country’s human resources.
What gave birth to TESDA was the merging of the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) with the Bureau of Technical and Vocational Education of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) and the Apprenticeship Program of the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) of the DOLE.
TESDA is not only limited to offering trainings that will develop vocational and technical skills of the enrollees. It is also mandated to promote middle-level manpower.
Since it also has the power to approve skills standards and tests, the agency is also required to develop an accreditation system for the development of institutions involving middle-level manpower.
The agency stands to be the transformational leader in technical education and development of skills of Filipino workforce. Trainers, workers and employees are guided with the values of demonstrated competence, institutional integrity, personal commitment, culture of innovativeness and with deep sense of nationalism.
TESDA graduate insights
Coleen de Leon finished three short courses in a training center of TESDA in Guiguinto, Bulacan. She reflects that it is good to undergo training for a skill you didn’t know before, wherein in a short span of time, you can acquire a new skill, which later on you can use as a livelihood.
She has now certificates from dressmaking, Basic Nihongo and Basic English Training short courses. Among the three, her learnings from her dressmaking course has become her source of income now.
What she likes the most about her TESDA stint is that she learns quickly because they were backed up with actual trainings right away.
Before, she had no idea about dressmaking. Her trainings with TESDA helped her not only to discover her skills, but to improve and later monetize her new-found skills.
Opportunities that come with TESDA trainings and certificates
Graduates like Coleen learn to enjoy the trainings because opportunities come after graduation and certification from TESDA.
Having partner companies locally and internationally, TESDA can help graduates find job opportunities inside the country and abroad. That’s why some people, who don’t have the chance to graduate with a college degree, but are aching to find a job abroad, considers the agency and enroll themselves in short courses to have a TESDA certificate.
For this reason, TESDA has become known to be an alternative to college education that can make an undergraduate competent in jobs.
Know more about TESDA online program
Today, with the use of the modern technology, TESDA offers online programs for those who are interested in their courses.
According to its website, the TESDA Online Program (TOP) provides an effective and efficient way to deliver technical education and skills development services to a broader audience/wide range of users/all learners at a lesser cost as the online program requires no tuition fee.
It is a program for everyone who loves to learn TESDA courses without the pressure, at their most convenient time.
Visit the TESDA website, www.tesda.gov.ph to know how to enroll in the program.
Skills are important to everyone in finding what job you are interested on. Developing those skills plays important role to properly enhance it and be proficient. And TESDA offers quality programs and trainings without so much expenses.
Having said that, are you willing to develop your skills with TESDA?
