10 November 2014
The Philippines may not yet be the center of automotive manufacturing in Asia, but what it lacks in production lines, it is making up for by churning out quality workforce.
At the forefront of this effort are the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and Toyota Motor Philippines, which have renewed partnership for a new chapter of a joint program to train select trainers in the industry.
TESDA's Automotive Trainers for Industry Immersion for 2014 recently gave a batch of trainers capability-building training to keep them updated with the current trends and practices as well as with emerging technologies in the automotive industry. This will keep the trainers ahead in the industry.
They are also expected to help continuously enhance the existing curricula and competency-based learning modules (CBLM) being used in their respective training institutions.
"The quality of our technical vocational graduates rests heavily on relevance of the training programs and the kind of training they imbibe from the people at the frontline," TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said.
"We are grateful to Toyota for investing anew in this successful and proven model of industry immersion of trainers," Villanueva added d.
The TESDA chief underscored that the industry's willingness to support the program provided opportunity to use its technical people and resources to benefit the trainers.
He said that the trainers are expected to cascade their learning among the technical-vocational students or share this with their fellow trainers in their respective institutions, resulting in multiplier effect.
Toyota, meanwhile, said that opening its doors to the trainers' immersion would help achieve the goal of matching the quality of workers that the industry requires, saying that trainers in the academe are critical part in developing the skills of workers in the automotive sector.
"It's a win-win situation actually since the company benefited from the program as the trainers served as workforce during the immersion; the knowledge from the academe are shared with their company counterparts; and on the side of the industry trainers, a sense of fulfillment that they were able to share their experience," Villanueva said .
Training through industry immersion has never been as pronounced as before considering the changing roles of TESDA Trainers from a mere trainer to coach, facilitator, assessor, and curriculum and learning materials developer. With this intervention for TESDA Trainers, Villanueva said, the demand to generate graduates attuned to the requirements of the industry is ensured.
For the two-week program held from October 20-30, the trainers were immersed at the Toyota Administrative and Service Center in its compound in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and they focused their training on the Toyota Computer Control System and the Electronic Controlled Transmission.
The mode of training included lecture and immersion in the Toyota Service Center. Seasoned instructors from Toyota served as facilitators during the program. The trainer-participants in this program undergone assessment and certification at Don Bosco Technical Institute-Makati.
Last year, a batch of TESDA trainers also completed the immersion program in Toyota.
Villanueva said TESDA hopes to continue its partnership with Toyota to address the need for more highly-skilled technicians and provide employment opportunities for Filipinos.
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