DR. KAROL Mark Yee, executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education or EDCOM 2, said that Technical Vocational Education Training is a practical route to employment.

Yee said that some TVET graduates could get jobs that pay minimum wage like college graduates.

“What a college graduate could get after four years of education, four years of opportunity cost, four years of tuition and allowance, you can get in TVET for less than two years, sometimes in less than six months,” he said.

Members of the Commission’s Advisory Council and Standing Committee on TVET visited CITE Technical Institute, Sisters of Mary-Girlstown, Banilad Center for Professional Development, Golden Resource Academy for Career Enhancement, and School of Knowledge for Industrial Labor, Leadership, and Service.

The Commission also consulted Cebu IT-BPM Organization, Isuzu Training Center Tacloban, KEITECH Institute of Technology, TESDA Region VII, International Labour Organization Skills for Prosperity, BANIG Weavers Association, Local Government Unit of Tubungan, Cebu Contractors Association, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Balamban Community Training Center.

Meanwhile, Representative Pablo John Garcia, an EDCOM 2 commissioner, and Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia touted their Sugbu Kahanas program as the standard among local LGUs supporting TVET.

“That is why you could not have chosen a more appropriate province that actively supports technical-vocational education,” the governor said.

She added that the program was launched at the height of the pandemic. The provincial government allocated P100 million for skills development training for those who lost their jobs.

“We were able to graduate more than 4,400 TVET graduates with the help of TESDA identifying the accredited TVET institutions,” Garcia said.

“We have released the second P100 million…and we are looking at graduating another batch of more than 4,400 enrollees in the TVET programs. We have taken it upon ourselves to take care of our own,” she added.