PRESIDENT Duterte has designated former ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III as deputy director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), vice the late Gladys Rosales.
Bertiz took his oath of office Monday morning before Tesda Director General Secretary Isidro “Sid” Lapeña.
“We are grateful for the trust bestowed by the President,” Bertiz said in a news statement issued on Monday.
“We are humbled by the task before us at Tesda under Secretary Lapeña’s leadership, considering the huge number of Filipinos, including returning migrant workers, separated from their jobs on account of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Bertiz said.
“Tesda is already working doubly hard to deliver the highly responsive scholarship programs needed, including via distance learning, so that our displaced workers may acquire new proficiencies for their successful economic reintegration,” Bertiz said.
Bertiz also said Tesda is reinforcing the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program initiated by Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go to stimulate economic recovery and jobs creation outside Metro Manila.
“In the case of our workers returning from abroad, around 87 percent of them actually come from cities and municipalities outside the National Capital Region,” Bertiz pointed out.
“In support of the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program, we are committed to empowering dislocated workers with a wide range of high-value competencies needed for them to obtain gainful self-employment as well as employment opportunities in their home provinces,” Bertiz said.
Tesda has a budget of P13 billion this year, including ample allocations for the Training for Work Scholarship Program (P3.1 billion); Special Training for Employment Program (P1.4 billion); Tulong Trabaho Fund (P1 billion); and the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Subsidy for students in registered technical-vocational institutions (P2.9 billion), among other programs.
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