DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 March) — The KorPhil Training Center of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) in Tibungco, Davao City will soon have a new training facility worth P2.2 million that will develop more skilled linemen to address the power industry’s shortage of workers.
The announcement was made during Friday’s memorandum of agreement signing at the conference room of Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) between TESDA 11 regional Dr. Gaspar Gayona, TESDA-Davao Davao City/Davao del Sur director Engr. Nestor Tabada, DLPC senior vice president Arturo Milan, and DLPC president and chief-executive-officer Jaime Jose Aboitiz for the implementation of the project dubbed “Basic Electrical Lineman’s Training Center of Mindanao or BELT.COM.”
DLPC, a subsidiary of AboitizPower, will fund the construction of the facility to rise within the seven-hectare TESDA’s KorPhil Training Facility.
The center’s construction is expected to be completed by June 2016.
Milan said they came up with the project because of the decreasing number of skilled linemen as several of them have been lured to apply in countries like Australia and New Zealand where demand for these workers is high.
He said the agency will develop the training modules for the students.
The Project BELT.COM “is aimed at building a lineman’s training and assessment facility to increase the pool of qualified linemen,” said Gayona.
He also said that the training center seeks to incubate not only workers but also future techno entrepreneurs who are ready to put up their own businesses soon after graduation.
“What we are looking at is to develop more inventors. But you cannot create an inventor, if you do not have the theory. Most of our linemen know how to manipulate wires, but they cannot explain why they are doing that,” he said.
Gayona said students can choose from TESDA’s two-year courses for linemen and electricians such as the Electrical Restoration Maintenance and Transmission Line Installation and Maintenance.
After accomplishing the two two-year programs, students will be accorded with a national certification II, following the Philippine TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training) qualification and certification system.
A national certificate is issued when a student “has demonstrated competence in all units of competency that comprised qualification.”
In his message, Aboitiz said “our world is changing faster than ever and we realize that our CSR projects should evolve with the changing needs of the community.”
He added that that BELT.COM will support DLPCs other programs such as the Electrical Laboratories in public schools and Project Best (Basic Electrician Skills Training) in rural areas.
“In Davao City alone, many manufacturing industries, malls, condominiums, and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are mushrooming. This development entails not only an increased demand for power but also for linemen who will carry out construction of new transmission and distribution lines and later maintenance of these lines,” he added.
“It is different when your trainer is a teacher or a practitioner who comes from an industry because he knows the what’s it’s like in the real world,” Gayona added. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)