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MANILA – Senior high school (SHS) students under the Technical Vocational Livelihood (TVL) track will start receiving free assessments for government certification starting in school year 2024-2025, an official of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) said Monday.
During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing, TESDA Deputy Director General Aniceto Bertiz III said preparations are ongoing for the free certification program under the twin joint memorandum circulars (JMC) signed on May 10 by TESDA, Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
“We are coordinating with DepEd, DOLE and CHED para magkaroon ng dashboard at hindi mahirapan ang ating mga estudyante na mag-avail po ng (to create a dashboard that would ease the experience of our students in availing of the) mandatory certification and assessment,” he said.
The dashboard would help identify the graduating students who would need to be assessed while DepEd will help find which districts they are from, Bertiz said.
He said an assessment center must be established, in addition to training the program’s assessors.
“We have been given also a budget to add more and develop more trainers and assessors. Para po sa malaking bilang ng mga ga-graduate natin na mga senior high school as well as to cater iyong mga grumaduate po noong nakaraang taon (This is to address the large number of graduating SHS students next year as well as those who will graduate this year),” he said.
The two JMCs are in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s directive to address skills mismatch and employment gap among SHS graduates.
The JMCs aim to fund graduates’ assessment for National Certificates I and II.
TESDA’s Technical and Vocation Education and Training embedment into all SHS tracks was also signed and is expected to begin by school year 2025-2026. (PNA)
