By US News Agency / Asian

The city government of Taguig and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) have launched a joint skills training and employment program that will benefit hundreds of unemployed residents of Taguig.

Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano and Tesda Administrator Secretary Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva said that the skills training program targeted an initial batch of 2,500 beneficiaries from various communities of the city.

Tesda conducted a community outreach program in Sitio I in Barangay Napindan during the agency’s celebration of its 16th founding anniversary. It offered health kits to children and provided free services such as haircut, reflexology and donut-making lesson.

Thankful to the generosity of Tesda, Cayetano expressed optimism that the partnership with Tesda, including the Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (FBDC), which had committed to make available 4,500 jobs from various construction sites in Fort Bonifacio, would accomplish what they have set out to do in terms of findings jobs and increasing employment opportunities for the Taguigenos.

“We are definite that it will yield positive results as far as trimming down the unemployment rate in the city since we will have more skilled workers tailor-made and suited to work in construction sites in Fort Bonifacio,” the mayor said.

The mayor has also expressed gratitude to the FBDC for giving commitment to prioritize Taguig applicants in the hiring of personnel at the construction sites. “They only requires that our people will undergo proper training and this is where Tesda will come in,” the mayor said.

Villanueva said that the partnership was to resolve the unemployment problem of the city.

“In line with the vision and mission of Mayor Lani Cayetano, Tesda has committed to be a partner of Taguig City in resolving, identifying and providing solutions to unemployment problems in the city,” Villanueva said as he urged the residents to grab the different training opportunities to be offered by Tesda and Taguig City government.

Ms. Cecille Amaro, Tesda director, said that the training project was an urgent one.

“The specific trainings that we will provide are skills that will enable beneficiaries to land a job at a construction boom in Fort Bonifacio Global City,” she said.

The training that will be provided is construction related, such as carpentry, masonry, plumbing, basic house electrical wiring and welding.

The training will be subsidized by Taguig city government.

As for the mechanism of the employment scheme, Amaro said they were already drafting the guidelines of the terms of reference for the eventual signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) by the project partners.