THE TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority targets to train around 1.8 million Filipinos in various technical vocational courses in 2023.

This will be higher than the 1,261,244 who enrolled in various tech-voc courses last year, of whom 1,231,289 have graduated.

TESDA Director General Danilo Cruz said the agency is committed to increase the number of TVET scholars.

There are 183 TESDA Technology Institutions, 250 public TVET providers and 4,197 privately-run tech-voc institutions nationwide, implementing more than 17,000 tech-voc training programs.

“As these registered programs comply with the Training Regulations that TESDA developed in close coordination with industry, their graduates are job-ready, with the right skills and knowledge needed by employers,” Cruz said.

Meanwhile, the preliminary results of the 2022 Study on the Employment of TVET Graduates showed that 8 out of 10 graduates or those trained by TESDA were able to find jobs.

The employment rate of 84.72 percent can be attributed to the opening up of the economy and TESDA’s pursuit of area-based and demand-driven TVET, Cruz said.

The SETG is conducted annually to measure the relevance and effectiveness of tech-voc training programs.

“Sa area-based and demand-driven TVET, pinag-aaralan namin at tinutugunan namin ang mga pangangailangan ng industriya sa buong kapuluan,” the TESDA chief said.