Tesda to retrain repatriated OFWs

MALOLOS CITY ,Philippines  — The Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) is offering free re-training and re-tooling courses to repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Thousands of OFWS from the Middle East and North Africa have returned to the country due to recent and on-going violence that threaten their security.

TESDA director general Joel Villanueva told The STAR that it’s a good opportunity for repatriated OFWs to undergo re-training and re-tooling to upgrade and acquire new skills.

“It’s a free re-training and re-tooling program for OFWs, we suggest that they take advantage of it,” Villanueva said after speaking at the 1st commencement exercises of TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program here.

When asked for the requirements, Villanueva said that repatriated OFWs only need to show their passport or driver’s license when they go to TESDA training centers or accredited technical schools nationwide.

With regards to opportunities for new graduates of TESDA programs, he said that aside from job opportunities abroad, there are also new opportunities that will open up in the country, including the expansion of the P25-billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country.

“The BPO industry will need more call center agents in the country,” he said, adding that TESDA accredited technical schools are also offering the same program for Filipinos.

Villanueva also said that while India remains the home of the biggest BPO companies in the world, Filipinos have overtaken them in the number of manpower employed.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado encouraged some 1,200 new graduates of TESDA’s Training for Work Scholarship Program to use their skills in the country instead of going abroad.

“The country needs your skills and I hope you will use it here,” Alvarado said.

The governor also announced that he will provide more scholarships to Bulakenyos through TESDA, noting that not everybody can afford to go to college.

TESDA provincial director Angela Gabriel, on the other hand, agreed even to providing skills upgrading program for local journalists, especially on multi-media platform and new media technology.

Gabriel said they will also create a program for local journalists dedicated to desktop publishing.