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TESDA online program – More than 1.2 million users have registered for the online program being offered by the Technical Education and Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) for more than six years now.
The TESDA Online Program (TOP) has now reached 1,223,857 registered users. Of these, 894,390 have enrolled in various courses and at least 441,052 of them have completed an online course.
TESDA Director General/Secretary Guiling “Gene” Mamondiong says that the TOP was launched in May 2012 to make technical education more accessible to Filipino citizens through the use of information and communication technologies.
TOP makes tech-voc just one click away
“It aims to bring technical education one click away from students, out-of-school youth, unemployed adults and overseas Filipino workers,” says Mamondiong.
As of August 2018, the TOP offers 58 online courses from different industry sectors. The most popular courses for the last three years are Basic Computer Operation (Intel Easy Steps), Web Development using HTML5 and CSS3, Preparing Cakes, Provide Housekeeping Services to Guests and the STAR Online Training Program.
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In the traditional face-to-face learning, students are required to be physically present in the Training Center in order to be trained. While TESDA school-based programs are offered for free, others costs such as transportation and food allowances are taken directly from the students’ pockets. But with TOP, these costs can be reduced dramatically by taking the courses online.
TOP courses are for free
The online courses available in the TOP are also offered for free, allowing the students to enroll in multiple classes at the same time.
A study conducted by the Philippine Institute on Development Studies shows that 56 percent of the respondents identified skills upgrading and enhancement as the number one reason for enrolling in TOP, while 18.8 percent of the respondents enrolled in TOP for employment purposes.
The TESDA Online program expanding reach
The same study shows that the TOP is able to benefit and reach those that can be considered “last mile customers”, reaching even the most remote areas in the Philippines, and include those with lower level education (K-12 and below students).
Apart from this, the results from Onsite Assessments, a TESDA program which offers competency assessment for Filipino workers in certain countries, show a high certification rate of 89.66 for OFWs who had studied TVET courses through the TOP.
“These results show beyond doubt the success of digitizing the delivery of TVET courses through the TOP, an effective alternative learning system for enhancing and acquiring new skills for employment and promotion – at your own pace, space and time – at no cost,” says Mamondiong. (TESDA)
