SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in Central Luzon is confident it can supply the manpower needs of the regional construction industry, specially the administration-led infrastructure projects here.
Nomer Pascual, chief operation officer of Tesda in Central Luzon, said about 2,800 certified skill persons graduated from the agency’s programs last year to supply the workforce needs of big-ticket projects of the Duterte administration.
Assuming that some new skilled workers are already employed or went abroad, Pascual said about 65 percent of the jobs remain to match the 1,500 unemployed graduates at the moment.
These graduates include certified plumbers, welders, heavy equipment operators, electricians, scrap holding operators, and technical drafting workers, he added.
Tesda is also training another batch of skilled workers in cooperation with the industry and local government units in the region, Pascual said.
The agency’s problem, he noted, is that the industry is not giving them the number of workers they need and so Tesda cannot accommodate the manpower needed by other sectors.
For 2018, TESDA concentrated on the need of the infrastructure industry, in line with the Build, Build, Build program of the administration.
Based on the record of the government technical schools, tourism remains the favorite course of students, followed by agriculture, hotel and restaurant management, and construction.
Projects in the region include the New Clark City, the construction of the Clark International Airport’s new passenger terminal, the Tutuban Clark Railways, and the Clark-Subic railway.
The projects are aimed at turning the region into a growth area, and decongesting Metro Manila.