Tesda to boost country's IT capability

THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is set to open a learning platform to boost the number of qualified information and communications technology workers in the country.

In a statement, Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva said that most ICT employers considered the training provided by universities and colleges in the country as "inferior".

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This resulted to an estimated annual shortfall of nearly three million in the ICT sector, according to Villanueva.

“It is deemed that some ICT skills are woefully in short supply particularly skills related to ICT application, security, graphics and animation; and ICT research and training,” he noted.

He said Tesda is now formulating the Training Regulations ICT-mediated technical vocational education and training (TVET) set to deal with at least 12 areas of ICT performance.

These areas are ICT for teaching and learning; ICT for prior learning assessment and recognition; ICT for assessment and communication; ICT for placement of graduates; ICT for labor market information; ICT for career education guidance; ICT for administrative purposes; ICT for special needs of learners; ICT for virtual internships; ICT for informal skills development; and ICT for assessing teaching and learning.

“In addition to the demand gap in numbers, there is increasing skill quality gap, where TESDA hopes to help turnaround by improving its training content and delivery,” said Villanueva.

Countries identified with a major demand for ICT workers are China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Russia.

Villanueva noted that these six countries will account for nearly 80 percent of the total demand in Asia-Pacific region. (AMN/Sunnex)