Senators grill TESDA over labor outcomes, grads earning below minimum wage

Senators on Wednesday, Sept. 13 expressed dismay at the quality of employment that graduates from the Technical Education Skills Development  Authority (TESDA) are getting after they found out that there are some who are landing below minimum-wage jobs.

During budget deliberations of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senate Majority Floor Leader Joel Villanueva presented data regarding the labor market outcomes of graduates or the average income before and after training. 

According to the graph he presented, only graduates who obtained National Certificates (NC) III and IV breach the minimum wage threshold.

He added that the NC III and IV graduates, as well as diploma courses, are only .3 percent of TESDA's training regulations. 

"If this trend will continue to go on then we are only allowing them to land jobs below minimum wage and there's no way that we can help them get out of poverty," Villanueva stated.
 

Sen. Win Gatchalian, co-chairperson of the Congressional Commission on Education, said that this is not commensurate with the money and time that they spent and that the graduates cannot even reap the rewards of their investment. 
 

He added that they can only be happy if the 80 percent employment rate that TESDA is stating is equivalent to above-minimum wage jobs.
 

Sen. Raffy Tulfo on the other hand, stated that TESDA shouldn't be allowing their graduates to be accepted in jobs where they only earn below minimum wage. 

“Nag-aral sa inyo for how many months or years, nag-train and all and then nang pakawalan niyo nag-land ng jobs sa tulong ninyo and below minimum wage ang tinatanggap pumapayag kayo? (They studied under you for how many months or years, trained and all then when you let them go they get minimum wage job and you allow that)?” Tulfo asked.
 

TESDA Secretary Suharto T. Mangudadatu, however, stated that overseeing the kind of employment that their graduates get is not the job of the agency.

But Mangudadatu vowed to call the attention of such companies that allow these working conditions to occur.

TESDA Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta explained that these incidents happened mostly during the pandemic.

But after the economy reopened, Urdaneta said the situation improved and about 37. 95 percent are now earning P10,000 to P19,000. 
 

She also mentioned that this is the reason why the agency is partnering with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines to show that they have to monetize the competencies of the skilled workers.

TESDA's approved budget is P15.23-billion under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), higher by 8.17 percent than its proposed budget of P14.08-billion.