Towards an Improved Pinoy Technical Vocational Education and Training
● Technical-vocational education in the Philippines has always been an
unpopular choice among high school graduates because it is
perceived that getting a technical-vocational education is not
glamorous as there is no prestige, no recognition, no job security and
no professional status in working in the technical-vocational field. In
short, having a technical-vocational background is considered inferior
compared to a university degree and only the ‘bobo’ enroll in these
courses.
● This kind of notion should be eradicated because “Hindi bobo ang
Pinoy technical-vocational graduates.” If our technical-vocational
institutes (TVI) are managed and monitored well, they will be able to
produce world-class and skilled graduates who can compete strongly
against our neighboring countries. Tech-voc graduates fill an important role in different industries in the country and overseas. And
if our tech-voc graduates become job-ready and globally competitive,
they could contribute a lot to the national income and economy.
● In the Philippines, the two main agencies tasked in providing basic
education in the country are DepEd or Department of Education for
the academics and TESDA which stands for Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority, which is mandated to provide direction,
policies, programs and standards towards quality technical education
and skills development. The two bodies should complement each
other so that there will be no overlapping of roles that could create
conflicts in the implementation of their programs. However, it seems
that the curriculum from these two bodies have created some
challenges for both of them. Eversince K-12 curriculum has been
implemented, DepEd has gotten some resources from TESDA
because the tech-voc curriculum should be handled by experts in the
technical field and not by a regular teacher. So this phenomena,
which was unseen as the would-be effect of the K-12, needs to be
resolved.
● TESDA should be given complete responsibility by the government
for technical and vocational training, a separate agency from DOLE,
DTI and DepEd. However, TESDA needs to go beyond providing
instructions and training. Skills assessment should be thorough and
must meet globally-competitive criteria.
● Reshaping TESDA
It is proposed that TESDA curriculum be two tracks: meaning the
courses offered will be either Professional Tracks (service oriented)
or Livelihood Tracks (product oriented).
● TESDA should be independent from other government agencies in
terms of providing technical-vocational training and education.
However, other agencies can complement because agencies like
DepEd, help in the basic education of children, while DOLE and DTI give assistance in the employment and livelihood programs
respectively.
