TESDA, DepEd host 4th HOM on SEA TVET

Post date: Sep 11, 2018 3:56:24 PM

Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General, Secretary Guiling “Gene” A. Mamondiong will lead the opening of the 4th High Officials Meeting (HOM) on Southeast Asia (SEA) Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) which is being held in the country on September 4-5.

Mamondiong says that the meeting is being attended by 180 participants composed of officials of the Ministries of Education, Ministries of Labor and Training, Ministries of Science and Technology, Ministries of Higher Education, and other Ministries from 11 Southeast Asian countries and other development agencies, and partners outside the region.

Organizing the HOM on SEA-TVET with TESDA is the Department of Education (DepEd) with the support of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and its centers which include the SEAMEO Voc-Tech Regional Center, SEAMEO-Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and SEAMEO Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (Innotech).

The 11 member-countries of the SEA are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.

The 4th HOM on SEA-TVET which carries the theme “Moving Together Towards TVET 4.0” is being held at Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Mamondiong says that the annual regional forum of TVET Policy Makers of the Southeast Asian nations tackles regional policy directions aimed at improving TVET Education in the region.

The TESDA chief also says that the 4th HOM on SEA-TVET aims to focus on regional initiatives, and discuss the policies and TVET education components such as policy, curriculum and teaching pedagogies, and TVET personnel, that will accelerate the Southeast Asian countries to leverage their TVET education for the Industry 4.0 Revolution.

The goals of the regional forum include discussions on the importance of TVET from 2017-2018, find ways and measures to improve regional cooperation for the region; and discuss plans of national and regional TVET initiatives to improve the response among member countries to the changes which will be brought by Industry 4.0 and eventually increase the quality of TVET.

The inaugural HOM on SEA-TVET was held in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug. 23-26, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand. The 2nd HOM on SEA-TVET was held in Bali, Indonesia May 12-14, 2016 while the 3rd HOME on SEA-TVET was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 23-25, 2917.

In those three regional forums, participants tackled the ASEAN integration, the hiring of skilled workers in the region, and the need to increase the quality of TVET in Southeast Asia.

These also aimed to study the regional policy directions in pursuing harmonization and internationalization of TVET institutions in the SEA region and other regions.

Since the first staging of HOM on SEA-TVET in 2015, various national and regional initiatives in TVET have been created and co-developed among SEA countries and development agencies.

The purpose of these TVET initiatives include the improvement of quality of TVET, promotion of partnerships among TVET institutions, strengthening the industry's involvement and participation, improvement of the capacity of TVET personnel, and promotion of the mobility of skilled workers, teachers and students.

Various activities have also been organized at all levels of TVET personnel such as policy makers, TVET school/college leaders, researchers, teachers and students.

At the 4th HOM on SEA-TVET, TVET High Officials of Southeast Asian countries are expected to make policy recommendations and approve the regional initiatives to be endorsed by the SEAMEO High Officials Meeting in November 2018 and the SEAMEO Council Conference, which will be hosted by the Philippine Department of Education in 2019.

Joining the event are representatives from partner countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, among others.

The partner development agencies which have also sent representatives for the event include the ASEAN Secretariat, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Regional Association for Vocational and Technical Education in East and Southeast Asia (RAVTE) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), among others.