BAGUIO City—The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) announced its readiness to provide free skills training of their choice to fully rehabilitated drug surrenderers for them to be able to have a sustainable source of income and for them to be brought back to the mainstream society.
Tesda Director-General Guiling Mamondiong said coordination had been done with the health department and the social welfare offices on how to implement the system that would guarantee the provision of skills training to the interested surrenderers.
These surrenderers are expected to want to equip themselves to help uplift the living condition of their families.
He said: “We are ready to provide the desired skills training to our drug surrenderers but they must be fully rehabilitated so that it will be easier for them to be brought back to mainstream society.
“We have the available slots for interested drug surrenderers because it is part of our functions to help bring back the vibrance of the surrenderers by being productive in their chosen fields of profession in the future.”
The TESDA official claimed the agency will also be providing the surenderers the appropriate career coaching.
This is intended to guide them in the election of the skills training they want to be enrolled in to allow them to pursue a certain field that will serve as their source of income for their respective families and for them to be able to embrace a sudden reversal in their lives.
According to him, barangay officials must strictly monitor the compliance of the surrenderers to their commitments to already abandon their involvement in the illegal drug trade and support them in their desire to acquire the needed skills.
The skills are expected to help them advance the source of their livelihood and guarantee sustainable income for their families.
He added one of the primary conditions imposed by the agency before providing the drug surrenderers with their desired skills training was for them to be able to present a certification from the accredited health official that they had been fully rehabilitated.
Another condition was that they were fit to undergo the training as they wanted to have a paradigm shift in their lives.
After having completed their chosen skills training, the trained drug surrenderers will then be required to undergo the required assessment for them to be issued a national certification for their acquired competency.
He explained provincial and regional Tesda offices were authorized to facilitate the conduct of free skills trainings to interested and fully rehabilitated drug surrenderers.
He claimed the Duterte administration was aggressive in the implementation of its anti-drug campaign but it also wanted those involved in the illegal drug trade to reform and become productive citizens of their communities.