Time to level up: Joey Salceda wants TESDA to become a dep’t

House Committee on Ways and Means chairperson and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Friday said that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will play a crucial role in the country’s economic recovery.

To maximize the potential, Salceda renewed his call to upgrade TESDA into a department to make it more responsive to the needs of new industries that will create additional jobs.

“We have enough people, but industries are looking for enough skills to locate in a country. As we begin to open the Philippines to foreign investments, we need our people to have the necessary skills to take advantage of new jobs and add value to these industries,” Salceda said.

Salceda said he is in talks with the Executive department to ensure that proposed TESDA department will have enough funding to upskill some 50 million Filipinos.

“COVID-19 killed many industries for good. While we have to help most businesses, we can’t feed dead horses. We need to create new industries here. In my 200-plus consultations with industries during the discussions on the CREATE Act, businesses were clear that their biggest concern was talent,” Salceda added.

Salceda noted that the ability of TESDA to create new industries is demonstrated in Albay’s success in creating an agro-industrial and agro-tourism sector “from scratch.”

“By investing in agricultural and agro-tourism infrastructure and skills, we were able to create new agro-tourism and agro-industrial businesses such as farm schools, farm-to-table restaurants, new tourist definitions. We are also producing more food for our people, which keeps prices in check and allows our people to do more with their wages,” Salceda explained.

He said the same model can be used in other provinces “and we can seriously do this with TESDA becoming a department.”

“TESDA is the singular most critical institution in the emerging new economy. So, we need TESDA to be among the strongest institutions of government, as well. If for any other reason, we should strengthen TESDA because it works,” he added.

Salceda’s district is among the most aggressive implementers of TESDA programs, granting hundreds of slots for TESDA trainings under the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP).

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)