TACLOBAN CITY- Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Guiling Mamondiong announced the opening of 10,000 scholarship grants for the region.
To avail the scholarship grants, applicants must go to their respective barangay officials, Mamondiong said during her speech at the recently-held regional consultation with government agencies and private sector at the Eastern Visayas State University, this city.
TESDA had already sent letters to barangay officials for them to submit the names of their constituents that need skills training.
“There is a possibility that in the submission of nominees, those who did not support their barangay officials will not be listed so we also made the application form available online so groups can nominate them,” Sec. Mamondiong explained.
Applicants may also apply directly at their offices, he said.
Providing skills to unskilled individuals will lead them to land better jobs which could also result to decline of crime incidents to include being hooked to illegal drugs, the TESDA chief added. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)

TACLOBAN CITY – At least 2,601 senior high school (SHS) students in this city have availed the voucher program for enrolling in private schools and state universities and colleges.
The Department of Education (DepEd) expects that more SHS students will be listed in the program with the current updating of information at the department’s main office.
The number accounts more than half of the nearly 5,000 SHS learners enrolled in both public and private schools in the city this academic year.
Norberto Erandio, DepEd Tacloban division SHS coordinator, said there are 20 private schools and eight public learning institutions offering the SHS program.
The voucher program is intended for Grade 10 graduates who wish to pursue SHS education in non-DepEd schools such as private high schools, colleges, and universities, and technical and vocational schools, starting this school year.
The voucher enables students to claim a “discount” or a deduction from the cost of tuition and other fees charged by a non-DepEd school where they are enrolled.
The voucher subsidy is not given to students directly in the form of cash but will be disbursed by DepEd to the school.
“Through the voucher program, students and their families are able to exercise greater choice in deciding the SHS program that is most relevant to their needs and career goals,” Erandio said.
Since Tacloban is highly urbanized city, recipients are entitled to receive a full voucher amount of P20,000.
The SHS voucher amount is aligned to the cost of public provision or how much it would cost government to support the schooling of a public SHS student.
“This means that whether a student decides to enroll in a public or a non-DepEd SHS, the government’s investment in his or her education is the same,” Erandio added.
The voucher amount varies for a Grade 10 graduates in a public JHS (100 percent voucher value) and from a private JHS (80 percent voucher value), since students in private schools are paying students and have some capacity to pay.
SHS covers the last two years of the K to 12 program and includes Grades 11 and 12. In this system, students go through a core curriculum and subjects under a track of their choice.
(SARWELL Q. MENIANO)

TACLOBAN CITY- Local government units should learn to harness human capability for job generation with the help of the private sector.
Thus said Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Guiling Mamondiong adding that the private sector could provide more employment opportunities for their people.
“Without the help of the private sector, our country’s economy will not improve because they are the biggest job generator. So we need the support of the private sector,” Mamondiong said in his speech during a regional consultation at the Eastern Visayas State University attended by various government agencies and private sector.
The government, he said, does not have the capability to generate thousands of jobs but could only provide incentives to private sectors who will invest at their respective locality.
“Every time there is an issue of unemployment, it is always the President who is blamed for this problem. He is accused for not making a solution to this problem. But if only the LGUs will exercise their power, they can create thousands of jobs,” Mamondiong said.
LGUs may also create jobs by organizing small groups to create an organization but for greater job generation they should promote public-private partnership, he said.
“Job generators are the private sector but I also want the LGUs to create jobs in their respective jurisdiction and stop thinking for the national government to create jobs,” Mamondiong added.
But for a person to have a job, they need to have formal education which the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education provides or by skills training which they can acquire through training at TESDA.
Sec Mamondiong also called for the national government line agencies to do their share in creating jobs, citing the Department of Tourism as an example by creating tourist destinations in every local government units in the region, in particular, which resulted to job opportunities. (ROEL T.AMAZONA)