Organized by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), TESDA hosted the 2nd Expert Meeting on Quality Assurance of TVET Qualifications in Asia-Pacific on July 11 to 12, 2016 at the TESDA Women’s Center in Taguig. The meeting gathered 10 nations in the Asia-Pacific region to share country reports towards  developing international guidelines on quality assurance for the recognition of qualifications.

One major objective of the gathering is to identify key issues in quality assurance of qualification processes in different countries to ascertain that the certificates issued are “reliable testament to a learner’s knowledge.”

The first day of the two-day gathering commenced with welcome remarks by Mr. Borhene Chakroun of UNESCO, Dr. Eunsang Cho of UNESCO Bankok, Dr. Virginia Miralao from UNESCO Philippines, and TESDA Deputy Director General Atty Teodoro Pascua. The country researchers and experts presented strengths, weaknesses, barriers, lessons learned and opportunities for quality assurance in their respective countries.

On the second day, guidelines that will be released by UNESCO were deliberated on by the country experts. The draft guidelines will be further developed with the inputs from the participants. The outgoing TESDA Director General, our dearest Secretary Irene Isaac delivered the closing remarks for which she stressed the importance of quality processes and setting unified standards especially in TVET qualifications in the region to ensure streamlined qualifications of graduates and workers. She also mentioned the successes of TESDA in taking steps for quality assured TVET system in the country.

The participants, comprised of international experts of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) and quality assurance in TVET, UNESCO researchers, and officials from concerned ministries in the Asia-Pacific region, also visited the TESDA managed Human Resource Development Institute (HRDI) in Taguig for a tour of the training facilities and had first-hand experience on the Philippine TVET practice for higher level of qualifications.