TESDA implements Google IT solution project

MANILA, Philippines - In its bid to increase collaboration and improve communication for all its employees, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) recently worked with Google to avail a collaborative suite of free online apps through Google Apps for Education.

As the country's prime agency for providing technical vocational education and training (TVET), TESDA has finally enabled technical vocational students, trainers and personnel to use Google Apps for Education, where they will be able to send and receive e-mail with a @tesda.gov.ph domain name, store data and share documents with Drive, hold web-based video conferences with Google+ Hangouts and easily build websites with Sites.  

The Google solution is also used by many educational institutions.

"Technology is increasingly playing a starring role in schools and educational institutions in helping students learn. Our adoption of the Google Apps is a testament to this," said Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA director general.

Meanwhile, Janet Suzie Yoon, country lead for Google Apps Supporting Program, said she hopes the use of the apps would provide a new learning experience to both the students and educators, and help expand the reach of technical vocational education among Filipinos in the country and abroad.

"We are very excited to be working with TESDA on this groundbreaking project, and hope it will empower both your staff and agencies," Yoon said in a letter to Villanueva sent before the project's official launch on Friday.

TESDA plans the project will first be implemented in its central office and soon be expanded into the regional and provincial TESDA offices. It will also later on be used in TESDA Technology Institutes.

Between 50 to 80 TESDA information technology administrators and trainers from Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will undergo training and workshop on using the various Google Apps for later implementation.

"The hope is that as students leave the classroom, they take the technology with them, not just the enhanced skills, so that jobs would come easy," Villanueva said.

Among the Google Apps to be made available in the project are Gmail, Google's Drive, Calendar, Hangout, and Google Sites.

With Gmail, all TESDA employees and officials will have an email account that can be accessed using any device. The email user will each have 30GB of storage space shared between Gmail and Google Drive.

For Google Drive, a free web-based office suite, it will allows users to create and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings in real-time as well as upload and share any file type.

Yet Google Calendar is expected to help TESDA to easily coordinate work or class schedules, meetings and events online.

As for the Google Hangout, it will provide a free web-based video conference with up to 10 simultaneous users, which can be increased to 15 under Google+ premium services. It may be  used to set up meetings and may also be integrated to the TESDA Online Program to facilitate communication between the trainees and instructors.

And for Google Sites, being a free website creation tool, it will allow users to publish a website. It can be used by TESDA to create websites for its regional and provincial offices as well as its Technology Institutions.

Students can also create their personal website using Google Sites where they can upload their curriculum vitae, projects, profile, thus building an online portfolio.