THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is gearing towards prioritizing the agriculture and construction sectors in terms of scholarship allocation this year.
Tesda-Northern Mindanao director Tarhata Mapandi said agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and construction both get 25 percent of the national sectoral target for scholarship programs.
Mapandi said Tesda will have to prioritize agriculture sector in terms of scholarship allocation especially in areas identified as having highly agri-based program, and fully implement the rice competitiveness enhancement program and programs in accelerating farm school establishment.
Tesda will also have to develop and update training regulations in the area on agri-fisheries, agri-business and agro-industrial, and increase program registration in agriculture.
“Agriculture because of food security and construction because of the demand for build, build, build projects of the government,” Mapandi said.
The government has allocated around P268 million for Tesda’s various scholarship programs.
Mapandi said Tesda’s regional scholarship capacity is 81,000.
“This is the capacity in terms of number and readiness ng ating mga eskwelahan (of our schools) and it can go higher dahil marami na naman mapapa-register so madadagan na naman in terms of capacity ng Northern Mindanao,” Mapandi said.
John Simborios, Tesda provincial director for Camiguin, also said that Tesda is also going down to the barangay level to identify the skills needs of every villages in the region.
“We are also asking ano kailangan nila kay (what they need because) we have to have information from the ground so we can process and identify ano kailangan ng barangay nila, Simborios said.
Meanwhile, Gerry Constantino Quiblat, provincial director (OIC) for Misamis Oriental, said the implementation of the Executive Order (EO) 70 or the Creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict is in full swing and remain as one of the priority programs of the agency.
Tesda is the head of the poverty reduction, livelihood and employment cluster of EO 70. Quiblat said a number of former rebels have already availed and benefited the different skills training programs of Tesda.
“Ito yung ilan sa mga directions ng Tesda this year,” Mapandi said.
(These are some of the direction of Tesda this year.)