MANILA, Philippines — Only half of technical and vocational trainees have sought a national certificate from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in 2023.
During the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s (TESDA) budget hearing at the Senate, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian asked why only half of their Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) graduates seek a national certificate (NC).
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TESDA issues a national certificate to students once they have proven their competencies according to industry standards. It supposedly boosts the graduate’s chance of employability.
“Only 52% or five out of TVET graduates undergo competency assessment for the issuance of NC,” Gatchalian said.
In 2022, 64.3% of TVET graduates got an NC. The trend further dipped in 2023. Tesda had a target of 70% but only 52.96% was able to get certification.
“There are a lot of assumptions and a lot of conjectures but we have not yet dissected why but obviously it’s quite disturbing to say the least,” TESDA Secretary Kiko Benitez said.
One of the factors that may have contributed to this low certification rate is the lack of personnel in TESDA that could assess candidates.
At present, there are 7,832 assessors in TESDA. The agency said that it estimated that it will assess around 6.2 million enrollees by 2025.
Some sectors also do not have assessors at all, including chemicals/plastics/petrochemicals, decorative crafts, footwear and leather goods and pyrotechnics.
If one assessor will accommodate 10 candidates per day, it would translate to 623,677 competency assessment schedules.
Benitez said that another factor is the behavior of the students, as some of them may not need the NC for promotion or to change jobs.
“If they are going to undergo an entrepreneurship program, they may not feel the need to get the certification itself, having undergone the training. But that is conjecture at this point, and needs to be validated,” the TESDA chief said.
Gatchalian asked how necessary the NC was, since the problem seems to lay with the number of assessors.
However, Sen. Joel Villanueva, who is a former TESDA secretary, said that it was necessary to maintain it to set a standard.
“It sets the minimum standard of graduates that would pass the level of competencies,” Villanueva said.