THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, in partnership with the Unitec Pipe Manufacturing Corporation, has opened a training laboratory to boost its plumbing training courses.

Last December 7, TESDA Deputy Director General for TESD Operations, representing Secretary Suharto Mangudadatu and UMPC Managing Director Gregory Yap led the inauguration ceremony of the TESDA-UMPC Training Laboratory at the TESDA Women’s Center (TWC) in Taguig City.

The training laboratory aims to elevate the plumbing training courses of TESDA and ensure that its graduates are employable and adaptive to the unceasing changes in the working environment. The facility also aims to promote the participation of women in non-traditional trades like plumbing.

Mangudadatu emphasized the importance for TESDA to continuously partner with the private sector, particularly the employers, to ensure that tech-voc trainees receive the most appropriate instruction and learn the right skills they need to find work.

“The TESDA and UMPC recognize the need for a joint effort towards the promotion of competency-based training in the country through programs that make industry-responsive education and skills training more accessible to Filipino women as a step in nation building, thereby increasing productivity and improving lives,” Mangudadatu said.

It can be recalled that the agency and the UMPC have a longstanding partnership geared towards improving the plumbing training courses of TESDA.

In 2021, the UMPC started its collaboration with the TWC through the provision of generous discounts on the supply of quality pipes and fittings for the delivery of the Plumbing NC I and NC II programs of TWC.

Further, in June 2023, TESDA and UMPC signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to support the improvement of the TWC’s plumbing training facility.

The Plumbing NC I and Plumbing NC II have a nominal duration of 48 and 64 training hours respectively.