FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Roxas Avenue, Roxas City 5800 Capiz, Philippines

Tel. No. (036) 6210-471 Fax No. (036) 6213-075

AUTONOMOUS STATUS - CHED

Educ. 403 (Advanced Historical, Philosophical and Legal Foundation of Education)

Redel C. Viernesto Exequiel A. Calimutan

MAT Soc.Sci Student Professor

The Tertiary Education Curriculum

Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) Program
The Philippines

Context: TVET and higher education enrollments in the Philippines are relatively high
compared with countries at similar development levels, particularly for young women.
For disadvantaged youth, the most fundamental constraint to access is that many never
complete the 10-year education cycle. For those who do, entry into post-secondary
education is limited by factors such as low achievement in basic education and the
absence of effective mechanisms for targeted scholarships or student loans. For TVET,
a broader constraint is the concentration of TVET providers in niche areas at both ends
of the skill spectrum, while mid-level skill workers must rely on limited opportunities for
informal and/or on-the-job training.

Implementation of programme/ initiative: Technical Education and Skills

Development Authority (TESDA), the lead agency in TVET in the Philippines, is
mandated to provide relevant, accessible, high quality and efficient technical education
and skills development in support of the development of Filipino mid-level manpower
responsive to and in accordance with the Philippine development goals and priorities as
embodied in Section 2 of the TESDA Act of 1994. In pursuit of its mandate, TESDA
enables the Filipino skilled workforce to be more employable, productive and flexible to
the changing requirements of industry and the labour market, both domestically and
overseas. With employable TVET qualifications, individuals are empowered, become
self-reliant and capable of supporting themselves and their family.

Main challenges: TVET has enjoyed huge financial support through scholarship
programmes in the recent past. However, although the passing rate for TVET
programmes is high at 88.0 per cent, subsequent employment rates are still at the
relatively low level of 60.9 per cent. TVET is expensive and requires partnerships with
the industrial sector. When funding becomes the focus of government policy, it will be
beneficial for the whole government, and for TVET in particular, to maximize
government funding assistance by increasing industry participation in supporting TVET
programmes. The increase in the scholarship budget could be used as an instrument for
greater assistance to raise the level of participation of private TVET providers.

Results achieved: An impact evaluation study on the effect of the TVET

implementation in 2011 showed that a high percentage of employed TVET graduates
landed jobs related to the training programme they attended. The Youth Profiling for
Starring Careers (YP4SC) programme of TESDA was successful in providing career
options for TVET graduates. Some 59 per cent of employed TVET graduates acquired
jobs related to the YP4SC courses. Moreover, 40 per cent, or 136,170 employed
graduates had an average monthly income between USD 5,000 and 9,999; 28 per cent
of the employed graduates were earning more than USD 10,000; and 22 per cent were
earning less than USD 5,000.

Moving Forward: The following recommendations are being put forward to further
improve the delivery and relevance of TVET services to the labour market. Firstly, it is
important to sustain and improve quality assurance mechanisms of TVET training
deliveries to assist graduates and workers. It is also necessary to strengthen existing
TESDA partnerships with industries to further improve and promote TVET programmes
in the Philippines. This will be done by pursuing more purposive and active labour
market information campaigns, and redirecting training programme initiatives towards
priority sectors with highly in-demand and critical jobs. In the future, stronger
partnerships with industry will also be pursued, particularly to support company-based
training, through, for example, apprenticeships and on the job training programmes.

Replicability: TVET is expensive and requires partnerships with the industrial sector. It
is vital for effective government policy on TVET programmes to maximize funding
assistance by increasing industry participation in pursuing TVET. As the major end user
of skilled workers, industry is in the best position to train workers in accordance with
industry standards and conduct industry-based assessments and certification, with
governments providing the needed assistance.

References: www.tesda.gov.ph