The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is looking for research proposals, which the agency will use to improve the delivery of technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
“This (call) is open to anyone who would like to do TVET-related studies, basing the study on identified research priority areas,” TESDA Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Tuesday.
Priority areas under the National Technical Education and Skills Development Research Agenda (NTRA) are social equity, qualification standards and management, global competitiveness, TVET trends, and support to TVET provision.
Urdaneta said the results and recommendations from the studies will be the agency's basis in creating new TVET policies.
“Since the studies have evidence-based results, this would help us in creating more effective and efficient policies,” she added.
The executive clarified that the call for research proposals is not a contest. Interested individuals have until Nov. 16 to submit their proposals to TESDA offices near them.
Meanwhile, Urdaneta shared the latest developments that TESDA has made to strengthen TVET in the country.
Among these is the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan (NTESDP), TESDA's five-year plan as a response to the challenges of the so-called “Industry 4.0,” or the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.
TESDA plans to launch the medium-term plan in the last quarter of 2018.
Another development is the approval of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which enables students in state-run colleges and institutions to avail of tech-voc for free. Under this law signed in 2017 by President Rodrigo Duterte, students will also be provided with toolkits and books on the subject matter.
“We also conducted the ‘World Cafe of Opportunities' (WCO) and the National TVET Enrollment Day,” she added.
The WCO was a one-stop shop for job seekers that TESDA set nationwide last August 25-26.
Meanwhile, more than 6,000 jobs were made available at the National TVET Enrollment Day held in TESDA compound last February.
“TESDA also continues to prioritize the marginalized group, drug dependents, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, in its scholarship programs,” Urdaneta said. (Ma. Cristina Arayata/PNA)
