TESDA Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP)

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Implementing Guidelines for Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP)

TESDA proposes to vigorously pursue its vision to be the lead partner in the development of the skilled Filipino workforce as its categorical response to two of President Aquino’s Contract with the Filipino people namely:

  1. To prioritize jobs that empower the people and provide them with opportunities to rise above poverty; and
  2. To make education the central strategy for investing in our people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness to secure higher-level employability for the country’s middle-level manpower.

Objectives

The Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) shall continue to be directed towards filling up the skills gaps and job requirements of priority industries and sectors with high employment demand, improving the reach of quality TVET to the grassroots and encouraging technical-vocational institutions to offer programs in higher qualifications catering to in-demand industry requirements. This shall be supportive of the government’s thrust of rapid, inclusive and sustained economic growth.

Qualifications/Programs Covered

  1. To fill-up the skills gaps, the specific training programs in the identified priority sectors shall include any I of the following:
  2. With Training Regulations (WTR) programs;
  3. No Training Regulations (NTR) programs, if the skills needs cannot be supplied by the WTR programs; and
  4. Cluster of competencies of WTR programs for available jobs.
  5. All training programs to be offered in TWSP shall be registered with TESDA in accordance with the guidelines on program registration.
  6. Pursuant to the Special Provision of the 2014 GM and to meet the objectives of the program,, the TVET qualifications and courses to be offered shall focus on “Key Employment Generators” (KEGs) in the areas of “agri-fishery/agri-business/agro-industrial, tourism, information technology-business process management, semiconductor and electronics, automotives, and other priority manufacturing industries, logistics, general infrastructure and new and emerging sectors”. New and emerging industries shall be identified and recommended by the regional offices or industry bodies to be approved by the Director General. Labor Market Intelligence Reports (LMIR) or industry studies shall be submitted to support the recommendation.
  7. Trainers Methodology Level 1 and Level II for qualifications/courses covered in the KEGs shall be included in the TWSP.
  8. Programs under the TESDA Language Skills Institute (LSI) and National TVET Competency Assessment and Certification (NATCAC) shall be covered under the Program.

Beneficiaries of the TWSP shall have the following qualifications:

  1. Must be at least eighteen (18) years old at the time the scholar finishes the training program;
  2. Educational attainment shall be based on industry requirements or as prescribed in the applicable Training
  3. Pursuant to the Special Provision of the 2014 GM, priority is given to those who are from regions or provinces where the absolute number of poor residents and the incidence of poverty are high. The regional and provincial offices shall ensure that these areas are provided access to TWSP.
  4. Other clientele groups such as persons with disability (PWDs), indigenous people, solo parents and their children and senior citizens shall be afforded access to scholarship opportunities in the qualifications/courses where they can qualify. OFW returnees, members of the families of AFP and PNP personnel killed in military and police operations and other marginalized groups may also avail of the scholarship program subject to pre-qualification.
  5. Other industry requirements shall be considered, as may be required by the employers/industry associations.

Selection of Participating Technical Vocational Institutions (TV’s)

  1. The Regional and Provincial Offices (RO/PO) shall evaluate the participating TVIs based on their absorptive training capacity, previous performance particularly on the completion rate, certification rate, employment rate and other applicable criteria that maybe defined by TESDA.
  2. The program shall be based on Labor Market Intelligence Report-Skills Demand and Supply Map and employment facilitation system and linkages/partnership with industry/placement agencies through memoranda of agreement, as may be necessary. If the program leads to self-employment; the program shall be supported with justification on the provision of assistance in post-training self-employment or entrepreneurship services.
  3. The TVIs shall facilitate the tracking and job placement of scholars/graduates through its Career Guidance Office/Unit/Industry Coordinator.
  4. The TVIs shall build up its capability of maintaining an effective monitoring system to provide reliable status / tracer reports on the scholar-graduates.
  5. Affidavit of Undertaking with TESDA shall be issued by the TVIs (Annex Al) including the signed Scholar’s Undertaking (Annex A2).

Scholarship Benefits

  1. The TWSP scholars shall be entitled to free training and assessment. The approved TWSP standard costing for training and assessment shall be applied strictly. The TVIs shall not exact additional fees (such as fees for IDs and uniform) from the beneficiaries of this program.

Implementation Strategy

  1. The TESDA field operating units, in coordination with the TVIs and industry, shall adopt the  Seek+Find+Train+Certify=Employability strategy to ensure the effectiveness of the TWSP in terms of employment of graduates.
  2. Partnership with industry, employers and other organizations that can assist in directing training to available jobs and in facilitating the employment of the TWSP scholar-graduates shall be regularly pursued through regular industry consultation
  3. Existing partnership arrangements on TWSP such as BPAP shall be encouraged. Such arrangements shall focus on identification of priority qualifications/programs and facilitation of employment of TWSP graduates.

Scholarship Allocation

  1. Scholarship allocation as indicated in the 2014 GM shall be distributed by the Regional Offices (RO) to all the Provincial/District Offices (P/DO) based on their area requirements and the priority sectors and qualifications indicated in Section 2.
  2. The Regional Offices (RO) shall provide allocation for its LSI programs and the implementation of NATCAC based on the targets to be set by the programming offices.
  3. Other national priority and convergence programs consistent with the objectives of the TWSP shall also be covered in the TWSP as may be directed by the authorities.

Qualification Map (QM)

  1. The QM shall be prepared by the Regional/Provincial Offices (RO/PO), the industry/ other partners and/or the qualified training institutions. The standard QM template shall be used for this purpose.
  2. The Director General shall approve the QM as endorsed by the Provincial and Regional Directors and recommended by the TESDA Scholarships-Program Management Office (PMO). The Provincial and Regional Directors shall ensure that the recommended QM for approval of the Director General underwent strictly the process as required in this circular.
  3. Any revision/amendment of the QM shall only be allowed until end of November 2014 provided that no additional funding requirements shall be incurred.
  4. The Certificates of Commitment (COCs) being distributed by TESDA shall be replaced by the appropriate TWSP vouchers. The COCs shall be forwarded to the PMO for replacement of TWSP vouchers. The corresponding Sub-ARO shall be issued to the concerned RO.

Scholarship Vouchers Distribution Scheme

  1. The TWSP vouchers shall be issued to the Regional Offices (RO) by the PMO based on the approved QM.
  2. The Regional Office shall immediately release the vouchers to the Provincial/District Office (P/DO) while the P/DO shall notify the institutions of the availability of the vouchers for pick up.
  3. The institutions shall only conduct the training program after receipt of the vouchers from the P/DO.

Assessment and Certification

  1. The Provincial and Regional Directors shall ensure that qualifications being included in the scholarship shall have readily available accredited assessment center and assessor within the region/province.
  2. To meet the target requirements of competency assessment and certification, competency assessment shall be mandatory for qualifications with assessment tools.
  3. The conduct of assessment shall be a pre-requisite for payment of training cost only when assessment centers are readily available and accessible to the TVIs.

Containment Policy

  1. The containment policy shall be observed within the regional level.

Dual Availment

  1. Dual availment shall be allowed only for scholar-beneficiaries covered under this Circular. The additional qualification to be taken, however, shall only be in either a related qualification, at a higher NC level or in a value-adding qualification.