DAVAO CITY—The presidential scholarship programs for students at the Technical Educational and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) has taken in a huge cut this year.
The Pangulong Gloria Training for Work Scholarship last year had an allocation of 172 million pesos in 2009, which benefitted about 18,000 scholars, but was slashed to only 5 million pesos per region for 2010.
Loida Atencio, Tesda Davao region chief administrative officer, said that this was because the scholarship program was undergoing an evaluation process. “We are looking at the employment of our scholars; we have been given 6 to 12 months to find out if our scholars have found employment,” Atencio said.
She said that tech-voc institutions are required to have at least a scholar-employment rate of about 60 percent in able to avail of Tesda vouchers. The evaluation period will also determine what industries are in demand and what skills are needed to be availed by the scholars.
So far, Atencio said, welding courses are in demand with majority of the scholars opting to learn welding skills. This is followed by culinary courses as there is brisk demand for chefs around the world. Atencio added that they are looking at computer animation and graphics courses which they are considering for the training-for-work scholarship program.
Atencio said there is a growing demand for animators and its employment potential has been recognized by Tesda as they are already offering a animation course at their training center in Tibungco. She added that students have shown their animated works at the Tesda center.
Scholarship livelihood grants under Tesda falls under two programs, one is the training-for-work program and the other is the Private Education Scholarship Fund. The latter is given a consistent allocation of 9 million pesos per year and is intended for 660 scholars. (PIA XI)
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