Gatchalian tells technical-vocational senior HS students how to boost their employability
At A Glance
- Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has advised graduating senior high school learners taking the technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) track to undergo the free assessment program in a bid to boost their employability.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has advised graduating senior high school learners taking the technical-vocational-livelihood (TVL) track to undergo the free assessment program in a bid to improve their employability.
Gatchalian’s call followed the anticipated release of the joint guidelines for free assessment and certification for senior high school students
Under the 2024 national budget, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) are mandated to implement the program to benefit 420,900 TVL graduates by providing them with national certifications.
It was during the deliberations on the 2024 national budget last year that Gatchalian proposed to fund the free assessment and certification of senior high school learners under the TVL track.
“Kung makapasa sa assessment ang senior high school graduates na kumuha ng TVL, hindi lang diploma ang makukuha nila sa kanilang pagtatapos. Magkakaroon din sila ng national certification upang tumaas ang tsansang makakuha sila ng trabaho,” said Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
(If the senior high school graduates who took up TVL will pass the assessment, then they will get national certifications on top of their diplomas. This will increase their chances of landing jobs.)
The 2024 national budget allocates more than P438 million under the TESDA Regulatory Program to assess senior high school learners under the TVL track for the issuance of national certification.
For School Years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the certification rates among TVL graduates of senior high school were remarkably low at 25.7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.
This is due to the prohibitive cost of National Certificate (NC) assessments, which average P1,009.29 per individual and that the students themselves personally pay.