THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) has partnered with a Japanese air conditioning company to produce more skilled Filipino technicians.

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, Tesda inaugurated the new Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) training facility in partnership with Daikin Philippines inside its regional office in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

The 250-square-meter facility, which was an old building renovated by Daikin, is the third HVAC training facility in the country sponsored by the Japanese air conditioning company.

Other two HVAC training centers are located in Taguig City in the National Capital Region and Davao City in Region 11.

In addition to the facility renovation, Daikin Philippines also supplied modern training tools and equipments.

Wilkie Reroma, administrator of Regional Training Center-Cebu of Tesda 7, expressed his gratitude to Daikin Philippines for collaborating with Tesda for this program.

“We are very thankful to Daikin. They have been instrumental in upgrading our equipments as part of our resource sharing,” Reroma said.

Reroma said the program aims to produce at least 50 technicians annually over the next five years. Qualified beneficiaries will be trained to become National Certificate (NC) Level III qualified technicians.

Daikin Philippines vice president Ikuo Kani told SunStar Cebu that they want to help in upskilling Filipino technicians.

“In the Philippines the skill is not enough. Daikin wants to help upgrade (the skills of Filipinos),” he said.

The Daikin executive said their partnership with Tesda, which resulted in building a training center in Cebu City, is part of the company’s program to give back to the Filipino community.

“We have this philosophy that we are doing business in the Philippines and we are making money. But we are not only here to make money, we want to return kindness to the Philippines,” said Kani.

The skills training program in HVAC already started last month, but is still open to accept qualified trainees who are at least high school graduate and have industry experience.