Wednesday, August 22, 2007 New course at Tesda for tech-voc students
THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) in Taguig City will soon be offering a new computer course, which it said will benefit an estimated 150,000 technical-vocational (tech-voc) students in Metro Manila.
Tesda Pasay-Makati Director Carlo Flores said the Higher Education Start (HedStart) program will give tech-voc students a career advantage as they will be issued internationally-recognized certificates once they have completed the course.
"Their certification is globally accepted, internationally recognized so they will have advantage over other graduates. And with additional job credentials, employment would not be that difficult," Flores said.
Under the program, which will be formally launched on Friday, Tesda will partner US-based computer technology firm Microsoft Corporation, which will provide practical and real-world Microsoft.net computer technology course, along with all the necessary software, computers, and even highly qualified trainers.
Flores said the HedStart curriculum will be integrated in the curriculum of Tesda-accredited schools nationwide but for the meantime, only three schools in Makati City will be offered the program. They are the Asian Institute for Maritime Studies, CAP College Foundation, and Infotech Institute of Arts and Sciences.
"Initially, about 300 students of the pilot schools will benefit from this program. Then we will be targeting 150,000 tech-voc students in NCR (National Capital Region) alone," Flores said.
He said Microsoft Philippines will offer for free the computer curriculum, along with the facilities, training programs and technical facilities.
"Our Tesda tech-voc graduates will become Microsoft-certified graduates," Flores said.
"This initiative is how we, at Microsoft, are responding to the growing demand for .NET developers. We are confident that if our schools are able to produce graduates that meet this challenge, companies will hire these students," said Michelle Casio, academic programs manager of the Microsoft Philippines.
Casio also said the .Net courses of HedStart were piloted last year in the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB).
The twelve units using .NET technologies were co-developed by the schools and the Diliman Computer Science Foundation (DCSF).
"This year, HedStart is set for roll-out to schools interested in training their students on .NET technologies and upgrading their curriculum, so their graduates will be equipped with the technical understanding that is required in the workplace today," Casio added. (AH/Sunnex)
