THE TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority reaffirmed its commitment to contribute in nation building as it celebrated its 28th founding anniversary.

TESDA Director General Danilo Cruz said his agency and the training it provides is more relevant now as the nation recovers from the pandemic and as the world enters the fourth industrial revolution.

“Technical vocational education and training is done in close coordination with industry. This is what sets us apart from other types of education in the country. Industry engagement is a key component of the quality-assured TESD system of Tesda,” he said.

Cruz explained that strengthening and nourishing partnerships with TESDA’s industry partners are among the agency’s priorities.

“We shall intensify the implementation of Enterprise-Based Training through increased and deeper industry and enterprises participation in TVET, as it is found to result in higher employment rate among graduates compared to other training delivery modes,” he said.

“Under this partnership, we will strengthen the apprenticeship program either company initiated or institution and company through a dual training modality,” he added.

Cruz pointed out that through this relationship, TVET produces graduates and workers with the right skills and knowledge.

“TVET graduates are job-ready right after training. Our studies show that tech-voc graduates have an average employment rate of 78 percent,” he added.

TESDA’s 2022 Study on the Employment of TVET graduates showed that the average employment rate of the TVET graduates for the last five years is 74.76 or approximately 7 out of every 10 TVET graduates were employed at the time of the survey.