This suggestion was made today by Press Undersecretary Rogelio Peyuan at the inauguration of the Caring for Health Professionals (CHP) training school here, which has tied up with the Arroyo administration’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for hands-on skills training in different fields that are very much in demand here and abroad.

CHP has a health care and diagnostic center at the second floor of the building leased from the Surigao City local government and a hotel and restaurant cum classroom facility at the third floor. Mayor Alfonso Casurra, whose term ends on June 30, said he is glad to have left a showcase of his successful technical skills training program for the whole world to see.

Peyuan, whose over two years of experience in TESDA enabled him to rise to Deputy Director General for Field Operations and very briefly this year to Director General until his appointment at the Office of the Press Secretary, said the vocational and technical skills program is the only way to address the high drop- out rates among students who are unable to pursue or complete a full college course due to financial difficulties.

Peyuan pointed out that even in developed economies, 92 percent of those who get hired are those with vocational and technical skills, leaving only eight percent for those with formal college education.

The PGMA scholarship programs of TESDA provide scholarship coupons for deserving students to enroll in short term courses like bartending, food and beverage, housekeeping, commercial cooking and care giving that cost from P10,000 to P15,000 per student to longer courses like aircraft maintenance (in Manila) that cost P40,000 per student.

In one year, TESDA maintains 7,000 to 8,000 student scholars who, after graduation is linked with industrial partners for immediate employment, Peyuan said.

In 2009 alone, the program benefited P56,000 young people.

“This CHP training facility is the Arroyo administration’s way of telling the youth not to lose hope in finding opportunities for them to be gainfully employed and earning productively even if they did not finish formal college education,” Peyuan stressed as he voiced his hope that the next administration will not discard the vocational and technical skills program of the Arroyo administration.

Peyuan, who takes pride in being a “walking TESDA because, even with my 36 years in government, I made sure I would learn as much skills as I could muster that (I may) someday be able to use. I take more pride in my knowing several vocational and technical skills than in the diplomas that I have received as a young student,” Peyuan said.

Source: http://www.gov.ph/