RD Ted, PD BenHur attend leaders trng in Singapore

TESDA-Central Luzon Regional Director Teodoro Gatchalian and Pampanga Provincial Director BenHur Baniqued joined the first batch of TESDA directors who attended the 21-day Leadership for Change Training Program from May-June 2013 in Singapore.

According to Secretary Joel Villanueva, TESDA Director General, the leadership training program seeks to enrich experience of the directors who are in the forefront in the management and supervision of technical vocational education and training (TVET) throughout the archipelago.

We need to enhance the leadership capabilities of our directors to cope with the dynamic and fast-paced structural and technological changes happening in the local and global workplace, he said.

The Leadership for Change Training Program is an initiative of TESDA and is being supported by the Temasek Foundation, Singapore, and the ITE Education Services (ITEES), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) based in Singapore. Temasek Foundation will be supporting the program with a grant of about US$382,000.

The program focused on workforce development and the role of TVET; leadership and management for organizational excellence; curriculum development and delivery; management of TVET Institutions; branding and marketing of TVET programs; and, resource management and development.

RD Gatchalian explained that the training program was highly interactive, experiential and hands-on. His action plan and presentation focused on the road towards an authentic TVET thru the promotion and implementation of the Dual Training System. We also enjoyed the learning journeys and were impressed with the transformation of TVET in Singapore, he said.

Temasek Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization set up by Temasek, an Asia investment company with headquarters in Singapore, to support the building of human and social capital towards the development of communities in Asia. The foundation works with partners to support programs that develop people through health care, education and research; programs that build bridges between peoples; programs that build institutions of excellence through governance and ethics; and programs that rebuild lives and livelihood affected by natural disasters.

ITE is the largest single national post-secondary institution focused on TVET and provides career in technical education in Singapore at the technician or semi-professional level, and the principal authority for national occupational skills certification and standards. In 2003, ITE incorporated ITEES as its wholly owned subsidiary, responsible to share ITE’s success story in TVET with the international community. To date, ITEES has carried out numerous consultancy and training sessions in more than 20 countries.

Temasek Foundation and ITEES have assisted TESDA in the training of 60 lead TVET trainers in the development of printed and e-learning materials and the conduct of multiplier training for additional 680 trainers across the country. The first program was implemented in 2010, and has concluded successfully. (with reports from tesda.gov.ph)