After more than three decades of renting office space, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Capiz will soon have its own provincial office building, the agency said.
TESDA Secretary Isidro Lapeña recently led the groundbreaking ceremony of the TESDA-Capiz Provincial Office Building in Roxas City on Sunday.
"For the longest time, 36 long years, TESDA-Capiz has been renting an office space. Part of our budget has to be allocated to pay for the rent in order for the provincial office to function. We could have used this budget to cover other more important expenses of the provincial office," he said.
The TESDA chief also believes that with this milestone, TESDA-Capiz will be able to provide its clients greater access to technical vocational education and training and increase its operational units' efficiency.
After his engagement in Capiz, Lapeña led today the inauguration of the TESDA Center for Excellence (CENTEX) Building in Santa Barbara, Iloilo which now houses the Iloilo Provincial Office and the Iloilo Provincial Training Center.
Before this, Lapeña had just gone from leading the groundbreaking of a TESDA Provincial Training Center in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro and visiting the Ati Tribal Organization in Boracay Island.
Together with the Deputy Director General for TESDA Operations, Lapeña also visited the Regional Training Center in Talisay and the Provincial Training Center in Cadiz, both located in Negros Occidental.
On Tuesday, the TESDA chief is expected to sign a Deed of Usufruct for the construction of Negros Oriental Provincial Training Center in Dumaguete City.
TESDA said that Negros Oriental is among the provinces in the country that still needs to establish its own provincial training center.
As part of the agency’s guiding principle "TESDA Abot Lahat", Lapeña is aiming to provide every province in the country with a TESDA Provincial Training Center to give every Filipino, especially the ones who are in far-flung areas, an easier access to the government's free skills training and other livelihood projects.
As of December 2020, TESDA established 59 new provincial/district training centers and 1 Innovation Center in Cebu.