Saturday, September 29, 2007 Tesda's 13 years By Mafel Joan Negrido-Gamale Tesda Way
BIRTHDAYS come and go. While some prefer to celebrate their birthdays flamboyantly, some prefer to celebrate theirs sans flair.
Tesda-11, which celebrated its 13th birthday in August (the actual anniversary date was August 25), marked its anniversary region-wide with a lot of worthwhile activities like its customer development team's staging last August 21-24 of policy formulation workshops for Tesda-11's policy makers from various sectors, plus an awarding ceremony for deserving Tesda-11 employees on August 28, concluded with a significant visit on August 29 at the Bahay Paginhawahan on San Pedro St., Davao City to share the agency's blessings with the less fortunate.
Tesda's 13 years have been full of tears and laughter, goals and accomplishments, frustrations and realizations.
I cannot help but remember the times when people did not have any inkling yet of what Tesda was and what it was for.
I joined the government service in 1994 as clerk via the Technical-Vocational Education Division (Tved) of the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports, now DepEd (Department of Education).
Because of Republic Act 7794, otherwise known as the Tesda Act, the TVED, NMYC (National Manpower Youth Council) and the Bureau of Apprenticeship of Dole (Department of Labor and Employment) were amalgamated and given the new name of Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority).
Because of that development, we at Tved joined the NMYC personnel in Tibungco, Davao City to implement the mandates indicated in the Tesda Act. There were no personnel from Dole's Bureau of Apprenticeship as only its functions were merged with the two others.
When we were already housed at RELC (Regional Education Learning Center) on Quirino Ave., Davao City in 1996, Tesda was just in its infancy stage. People did not know that it actually existed already. It was evident the way people would stare at someone who would ask around about Tesda's whereabouts.
The real measure of Tesda's anonymity was the long distance call from a client residing in Marbel, South Cotabato. Being the newly promoted secretary, I was the one who received the operator-assisted call. Imagine my chagrin when the operator said, "Good afternoon Ma'am, this is a long distance call for Miss Tesda!
After several seconds of speechlessness, I accepted the call. I justified to myself that the call was for me since I was then the reigning Miss Tesda! I have to make it clear though that I was crowned not for my beauty, if there is, he he he.
I got more disappointed when I heard the caller's first words, "Hello Tes, uhm, si Tesda ni?"
That incident made me a great believer in information dissemination, probably the reason why, in spite of my being a Drafting graduate and an AB General Science graduate, I have chosen the path towards serious information drive by readily accepting the designation of information officer, even before I was promoted to my present position of TESD specialist.
We, at Tesda, were too busy trying to focus on developing and enhancing our programs for the people that we forgot to inform the very same people of our existence.
Fortunately, that is no longer the case. We Tesdans are elated to know that after 13 years of serving the public, the public has come to know what Tesda is.
People somehow now know that when it comes to tech-voc (technical-vocational)-related concerns, they should go to Tesda. When they want to be issued their Certificates of Competency, or when they want to enroll in ladderized courses that would allow credits of their tech-voc courses to their college courses later, they go to Tesda for assistance.
When they want to avail of scholarship slots intended for short-term courses, they go to Tesda. As a matter of fact, we now average 150 inquiries weekly from various clients, through text messages, landline calls, e-mails, and actual visits at the regional office alone.
That figure does not even include surfers of our website looking for answers to their questions in mind, plus clients of our operating units (Tesda-11 provincial offices and Tesda-11-administered schools).
Each time they celebrate their birthdays, the celebrators are supposed to become a year wiser, a year tougher. We would like to believe that through the years, Tesda has become wiser in dealing with tech-voc-related issues and concerns. It has become tougher in facing the challenges ahead, soaring to greater heights!
Happy 13th anniversary to the whole Tesda-11 Tatak Agila Family!
