TESDA set to pilot embedded TVET in SHS curriculum to boost employability

The Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) said Wednesday that it is ready to implement the pilot run of the integrated technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the curriculum of senior high school in August or September this year. 

In a post-SONA forum, TESDA Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta explained that they will not disrupt the processes and the curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd), but will only “contextualize” or embed TVET skills in the existing subjects under the SHS curriculum. 

“‘Pag sinabing TVET, ‘yun ‘yung sinasabing skills on carpentry, skills on cooking—hindi po ito ‘yung ganito kasi medyo of course, nag-evolve na ang TVET. Hindi na ito ‘yung TVET na alam natin before,” Urdaneta said. 

(When we say TVET, we usually think of skills on carpentry and cooking. But the TVET has already evolved and this is not the TVET that we used to know.) 

“Ang mga ino-offer namin doon sa embedment with DepEd ay ‘yung tungkol sa web development, sa visual graphics design, events management, Java programming, agro entrepreneurship, ‘yung iba’t ibang klase ng TVET. Ito na ‘yung elevated na or higher level qualifications na sinasabi ng Pangulo sa SONA niya,” she added.

(What we offer in the embedment with DepEd are skills on web development, visual graphics design, events management, Java programming, agro entrepreneurship, and other kinds of TVET. These are already the elevated or higher level qualifications that the President referred to in his SONA.) 

In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. underscored the importance of TVET in boosting the employability of senior high graduates. 

TESDA, together with the DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) were earlier tasked to form a technical working group to decide how to tweak the senior high school curriculum and identify which skills and competencies need to be prioritized to improve the graduates' employability.

“Statistics do not lie. Eight out of ten graduates of TVET ultimately land decent jobs. With its high employability rate, TVET will definitely be instrumental in capacitating our people, and in maintaining our employment rate at consistently high levels,” Marcos said in his SONA. 

The TESDA official, meanwhile, disclosed that they will already start training teachers next week on how to contextualize TVET skills into the senior high subjects. 

“Ipa-pilot pa namin ‘to bago namin i-full blast nationwide for us to be able to gather more lessons and experiences para hindi masabi na oh, gumawa na naman kayo ng kung ano ano tapos hindi naman pala pwede,” Urdaneta said. 

(We will pilot this before we implement it in full blast nationwide for us to be able to gather more lessons and experiences so that people won’t say that we did something that is not possible.) 

The technical working group is set to choose pilot areas for the program. TESDA has appropriated P50 million to train 4,000 teachers as part of the pilot stage.—AOL, GMA Integrated News