DepEd, TESDA continue to improve tech-voc high schools

After the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has closed some schools as part of its intensified efforts to crackdown technicalvocational (tech-voc) schools that failed to produce skilled graduates, it continues to assist the Department of Education in providing relevant education to tech-voc high schools under DepEd’s care.

Amidst confusion that DepEd tech-voc schools are part of TESDA schools, DepEd explains that it has its own tech-voc curriculum under the Strengthened Technical-Vocational Education Program (STVEP) intended for high school students. But DepEd clarifies that this curriculum was developed with the assistance of TESDA.

"STVEP essentially prepares students in various ways: for higher education; for immediate employment after high school since they already have the skills for livelihood; take short (one or two-year) post-secondary courses in technical education; or become an entrepreneur in their field of expertise,” emphasized by Education Secretary Armin Luistro. “This is similar to what we plan for the enhanced K+12 basic education program.”

Luistro said that, “in high school, aside from the academic load, we open to them avenues to fully explore and hone their skills. In short, it complements the government’s program for economic recovery and social uplift by addressing the job skill mismatch in our labor market and providing tech-voc high school students with the opportunities to acquire TESDA-certifiable technical, vocational, industrial and other relevant skills.”

“DepEd believes that the tech-voc high school program will play a significant role in raising the quality of high school graduates in the country toward employment here and abroad or toward entrepreneurship. Through it, they can contribute more significantly to revenue generation, jobs creation, and to national development as a whole,” said Luistro.

DepEd continues to raise the quality of the tech-voc program through the provision of competency-based curriculum, teachers’ training, acquisition of physical facilities, development of instructional materials, provision of manpower requirement, and other logistics support. And it is proud to say that with the kind of training and preparation it is providing the students, majority of its graduates are passing the skills assessment tests under the stringent certification standard of TESDA.

To date, DepEd supervises a total of 282 tech-voc high schools all over the Philippines where students can take specialization in automotive, computer hardware service, cosmetology, furniture and cabinet-making, garments, air conditioning and refrigeration, food production, crop production, food processing, fish culture, and fish capture, among others.

DepEd furthered that it is working hand in hand with TESDA in the operation of tech-voc high schools sinceTESDA is mandated to manage and supervise technical education and skills development in the country. Part of its tasks is to provide direction, policies, programs and standards towards quality technical education and skills development. With this, TESDA gives accreditation to schools that intend to offer tech-voc education and produce highly and globally competitive graduates.

TESDA also serves as a national certifying body that seeks to determine whether the graduate or worker can perform to the standards expected in the workplace based on the defined competency standards. Certification is provided to those who meet the competency standard to ensure the productivity, quality and global competitiveness of the middle-level workers.

Recently, TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva has been reviewing the performance of its accredited schools to know which among these defeats the very purpose of producing competent graduates who end up not securing any job for themselves.

Both agencies may differ from the nature of programs and beneficiaries they cater to, but DepEd and TESDA are one with the government in making our manpower responsive to the demands of the labor market, both local and global.