SENATOR Sherwin Gatchalian decried the dismal uptake in higher levels of training or higher level courses offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

“I’m quite concerned hearing that for NC IV, it’s only 0.16 percent of total TVET graduates,” Gatchalian said.

Finishing NC4 and NC5 courses is equivalent to having a college degree since learners were taught higher-level skills and competencies.

“These NC I, NC II , these are very simple skills. We’re just certifying them, but we’re not creating value,” Gatchalian said.

“There must be something wrong, why are we not creating value? So I want to hear from TESDA, how do we solve this?” he added.

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva called on TESDA to strengthen enterprise-based training or programs that are developed within companies and firms.

“We keep saying that EBT is the best way to improve outcomes and employability, yet we have not increased the number of graduates in this modality. We want to know the barriers to entry for EBT and how these barriers differ by industry,” Villanueva said.

“Out of the total TVET graduates, only four percent come from enterprise-based training,” he added .

He compared this to the 46 percent who finish community-based training, which are programs primarily addressed to marginal groups who cannot access formal training.