21 compete in TESDA skills competition

[Minerva Newman]

CEBU CITY – Twenty-one new tech-voc graduates from Central Visayas schools took part in the Technical Education and Skill Development Author­ity’s (TESDA) Regional Skills Competi­tion (RSC) which ended here Friday.

Winnie Salas, RSC chair and chief of TESDA’s Regional Training Center. said the three-day event centered on 15 trade areas along the sectors of Con­struction, Infrastructure, Metals and Engineering, Heat & Ventilation, and Air Conditioning.

“It also included Automobile Tech­nology, Cooking, Restaurant Service, electrical installation, electronics, fash­ion technology, web design, and other IT-based tech among others,” Salas said.

In his opening message, TESDA-Ne­gros Oriental Provincial Director Floro Ringca said the competition is the ven­ue to recognize world-class expertise of young industry skilled workers and technical-vocation graduates.

Ringca said he hopes the winners of the competition will move up to the Zonal (Visayas-Mindanao) and National Skills competition where the winners will represent the Philippines in the ASEAN Skills Competition in Singapore in 2020. “The Philippines will also host the 2022 ASEAN Skills Competition,” he said.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Assistant Regional Director Ma. Elena Arbon said in her keynote ad­dress that skilled Filipino workers are expected to develop caring ways, cre­ativity, and adaptability, traits that will endear them to foreign and local em­ployers.

All but two of the trade areas of the competition were conducted at the TESDA Compound here. The Restau­rant Services competition was held at the University of Southern Philippines and the Cooking competition at the Banilad Training Center. (With reports from Brandon Ormega, USC intern)