The Philippines is seeking a World Bank loan worth billions of pesos to enhance technical-vocational education and training (TVET) in the country.

In a concept document dated June 24, the World Bank said the investment project financing (IPF) for the proposed $250.625-million (over ₱14-billion) Philippines Skills Project is scheduled for approval by its Washington-based board on March 23, 2026.

To be implemented by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the project’s development objective is “to improve equitable access, program completion, and market relevance of TVET in specific sectors and geographical units.” This will be TESDA’s first World Bank-assisted project.

The Department of Finance (DOF) will borrow on behalf of the Philippine government.

Based on the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Philippines country partnership framework (CPF) for fiscal years (FYs) 2025 to 2031, the lender has a $300-million (more than ₱17-billion) IPF commitment for a “skills employment project” during fiscal year 2026, which starts in July this year and ends in June next year.

In a subsequent project information document dated June 25, the World Bank said it will lend $250 million (over ₱14 billion) to the Philippines for this specific project, leaving a financing gap of $625,000 in its project cost.

As Manila Bulletin reported earlier, the WBG plans to extend to the Philippines between $22 billion and $23 billion—or as much as over ₱1.2 trillion—in loans and other financing starting mid-2025 until mid-2031.

The new six-year WBG lending program—aimed at supporting the Philippines’ climb to upper-middle-income country (UMIC) status—includes financing support amounting to $7.85 billion, or over ₱437 billion, in the next two years.

According to the World Bank, the upcoming Philippines Skills Project aims to strengthen the skills system and ensure that relevant skills are more readily available in key economic and development sectors.

In particular, this project financing will begin by funding system-level reforms to improve enabling mechanisms, such as enhancing TESDA’s institutional capacity, improving information systems, and addressing barriers to access.

These initial reforms in the pipeline are expected to benefit all sectors and regions nationwide, the lender said.

After that, this forthcoming TESDA project will later on focus on specific high-growth regional economies and sectors, including the 17 sites of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded Supporting Innovation in the Philippine Technical and Vocational Education and Training System (SIPTVETS) Project as well as the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) 23 digital cities, it added.

In terms of sectoral support, industries like agri-fisheries, construction, information and communications technology (ICT), semiconductors, as well as early years workers or early childhood development are expected to benefit, according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, the World Bank said in a June 25 implementation status and results report that the $454.94-million (nearly ₱26-billion) loan for the Mindanao Transport Connectivity Improvement Project was declared effective on June 23, 2025.

To be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), this IPF aims to improve the climate resilience, connectivity, as well as safety of a road corridor traversing the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and General Santos in the southern island of Mindanao.

The World Bank said earlier that this would benefit around 1.16 million residents living close to that road corridor.

Approved by the World Bank back in March, this loan will be repaid by the Philippine government until 2053, the loan agreement seen earlier by Manila Bulletin showed.

Its loan agreement was signed last April, hence the project will close on April 30, 2032.

The Philippines will start amortization repayments for the loan in 2036.