To help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has appealed to local government units (LGUs) to hire the agency’s contact tracing graduates for their respective barangays.
“As COVID-19 cases in the country are still high, we are appealing to all local chief executives nationwide to hire contact tracers who have been trained under our contact tracing training program,” TESDA Secretary Isidro Lapeña said in a statement Tuesday, June 1.
Data from TESDA showed that a total of 3,621 scholars nationwide have so far graduated from the Contact Tracing Training Program (CTTP) but only 594 were hired by LGUs while 540 of them were hired by various sectors.
Lapeña also renewed his call to all TESDA Training Institutions (TTIs) to register CTTP, Barangay Health Services and other Health Care-related programs.
“After a year, the COVID-19 cases in the country have not yet been contained, and with the spread of the new variants, the number of cases surged,” he said.
As of April 2021, TESDA said, 78 TTIs have registered health care-related qualifications while 118 have registered CTTP.
The training on contact tracing, which was developed with the help of the Health Human Resources Development Bureau of the DOH and the health industry experts, runs for 15 days under blended learning modality.
Trainees for contact tracing must have completed at least 10 years basic education or holder of Alternative Learning System certificate of completion with Grade 10 equivalent and has basic communication skills.
Scholars are given a training allowance amounting to P2,400 for the entire training duration, insurance coverage, and additional allowance to cover internet expenses and personal protective equipment.
TESDA-NCR, through the MuntiParLasTaPat District Training and Assessment Center pilot-launched the CTTP last September 9, 2020.