May 25, 2021

Taguig City- In a bid to further assist outbound Overseas Filipino Workers, the Technical Education and Skills Authority (TESDA) has launched, via Zoom, the compressed 12-day Blended Training Program for Domestic Work NC II.

The conduct of the shortened training period was allowed in order to help domestic workers acquire the needed competencies the soonest possible time. It runs for only 12 days but still contains the basic, common and core competencies crucial for passing the competency assessment in Domestic Work NC II.

The specialized program is supported by and in partnership with the International Labor Organization (ILO).

During the virtual launch, TESDA chief Secretary Isidro Lapeña welcomed the first batch of the pilot program composed of 20 trainees.

 “This program has been conceptualized with the situation of our outbound household workers in mind. We recognize their need to be deployed immediately but TESDA would like to make sure they are properly trained before deployment. We want to prevent situations where domestic workers are abused by their employers because of alleged incompetence,” he said.

Supported by and in partnership with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the pilot training program shall be conducted by Fair Training Center in Paranaque, ILO’s partner institution.

 “ILO, together with TESDA and the Fair Training Center, has designed an alternative training model using a blended learning approach. We hope that effective online training will translate to lower training cost, without sacrificing the quality of training. I would like to congratulate TESDA on this important pilot initiative that will showcase relevant and safe practices to address training in the midst of a global pandemic,” said ILO Country Director Khalid Hassan during the launch.

The online training will save the sacrifice of traveling and incurring expenses for the trainees who are located both in and outside Metro Manila. The first batch of trainees are bound for Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

The blended training will be a combination of online and face-to-face modality. The trainees will undergo a 10-day online training while the remaining two days will be done face-to-face for hands-on training and familiarization with related equipment.  

The program will run for six months with a minimum of 60 trainees and will be monitored by the TESDA MuntiParLasTapat  (Muntinlupa, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Taguig, Pateros) District in NCR.

This will be evaluated based on the certification rate of the trainees who completed the pilot program and their acceptance by prospective employers.

The TESDA chief also said that this will be immediately recommended for adoption by other training centers offering Domestic Work if the pilot program proves effective.

TESDA Deputy Director General for TESD Operations Lina Sarmiento and Fair Training Center Executive Director Aimee Garcia also joined the virtual launching of the pilot program.

Meanwhile, the regular training program on Domestic Work NC II with a nominal training duration of 218 hours is still being implemented.###