THE TECHNICAL Education and Skills Authority has launched the 12-day Blended Training Program for Domestic Work NC II in an effort to further assist outbound overseas Filipino workers.

The conduct of the shortened training period was allowed in order to help domestic workers acquire the needed competencies the soonest possible time. It runs for only 12 days but still contains the basic, common and core competencies crucial for passing the competency assessment.

The training is held via Zoom.

The specialized program is supported by the International Labor Organization.

During its virtual launch, TESDA Director General Isidro Lapeña welcomed the first batch composed of 20 trainees who are bound for Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

“This program has been conceptualized with the situation of our outbound household workers in mind. We recognize their need to be deployed immediately but TESDA would like to make sure they are properly trained before deployment. We want to prevent situations where domestic workers are abused by their employers because of alleged incompetence,” he said.

“ILO, together with TESDA and the Fair Training Center, has designed an alternative training model using a blended learning approach. We hope that effective online training will translate to lower training cost, without sacrificing the quality of training. I would like to congratulate TESDA on this important pilot initiative that will showcase relevant and safe practices to address training in the midst of a global pandemic,” ILO Country Director Khalid Hassan said.

The blended training will be a combination of online and face-to-face modality. The trainees will undergo a 10-day online training while the remaining two days will be done face-to-face for hands-on training and familiarization with related equipment.

The program will run for six months.