The Director General of Abia State Education for Employment (E4E), Mr. Endi Ezengwa, recently embarked on a partnership visit of the Philippines with a view to establishing an exchange programme for the training of technical teachers in the State.
The tour which was facilitated by the Nigerian Embassy in the Philippines acting on the request of the Governor was to engage the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) of the Philippines for the training of technical teachers in the State so as to meet the acute shortage of the requisite personnel in Technical Colleges in the State.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) serves as the Philippines’ Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) authority. As a government agency, TESDA is tasked to both manage and supervise the Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development (TESD). Its goals are to develop the Filipino workforce with “world-class competence and positive work values” and to provide quality technical-educational and skills development through its direction, policies, and programmes.
Graduating from the programmes given by TESDA will ensure the trainee a National Certificate from TESDA Assessment that comes with benefits that include a quality assurance that the graduate has acquired proper knowledge and an understanding of the task at hand from undergoing a series of practical and hands-on demonstrations, positive attitudes from interviews with people who contribute to the job and work projects. Not only that, but the certificate will also guarantee that the graduate has acquired the values that can help his/her skills needed for the said occupation and for future opportunities that can follow from the success of the current project.
The first benefit of this visit is that it will afford the Education for Employment (E4E) the opportunity of acquiring the best training for our own technical teachers in order to get the best outcomes from the project. When they are trained, they would be able to replicate their knowledge in the training of our young men and women with world class competence and positive work values.
Furthermore, the value of our graduates from our technical colleges will no longer be in doubt. This is because, the certificate to be acquired will guarantee that the holders have received the values that can help their skills needed for the occupation and for future opportunities that can follow their success.
Indeed, approving this visit for the Director General, Mr. Endi Ezengwa is another achievement of the Governor, who has worked to ensure that the objectives of the programme E4E are sustained. We should not forget in a hurry that E4E was the among the first Agency established by the Governor on assumption of office since 2015 aimed at harnessing and maximizing the human capital base of the State; growing the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector of the economy and improving the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State.
The programme has since grown to become an agency which has attracted two World Bank assisted projects to support its objectives. Among the objectives is the development of the State’s Technical Colleges in terms of physical infrastructure, quality of teachers and adequacy of equipment for training.
The Governor also in one of his interventions on infrastructure and equipment was at Boys Technical College, Aba where he fenced the walls, provided a dedicated transformer and restored electricity to the school after seven years of blackout. He also renovated dilapidated buildings and completed new ones.
These efforts were not left unnoticed as the Federal Ministry of Education, through the World Bank decided to support the upgrade of three of these Colleges to world class standard through Innovation Development Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project.
It is therefore to ensure best outcome that the visit to Philippines becomes imperative so as to get the best training from the best agency in the world – the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). The benefits of this collaboration as already captured here, and many will be unfolding into reality in no distant time.
Abia …on the rise!
UNU,
23/10/2019
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