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| Examinees await their turn to prove their training was sufficient,. |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A total of 117 massage therapists have earned National Certificate II competency out of 209 candidates who were assessed by Tesda at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Wanchai over the past two weekends.
Despite the two extended weekends that the Technical Education and Skills Development Administration team spent assessing the candidates, they were able to finish only less than two-thirds of 338 registrants.
Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre said 50 more were NC II-certified out of 109 candidates assessed on Feb 23-25, in addition to the 67 certified passers from 100 candidates who the Tesda team assessed on Feb 16-17.
The time-consuming process has sparked off plans for an assessment team to be set up in Hong Kong.
“Going forward, the long-term solution is to develop a pool of Hong Kong-based assessors and a permanent assessment center,” Labatt Dela Torre told The SUN.
He disclosed earlier that his office will also train soon overseas Filipino worker-trainors on the new Tesda framework for massage therapy. He said the target date for Tesda-suggested training is in March.
A scheduled assessment of 172 caregiver candidates on Feb 23-24 had to be postponed because the venue at Lucky Centre on Wanchai Road was not ready, a Tesda officer said.
“We are trying to fix the new date for the caregivers,” the labor official said.
The team led by Marites S. Ramos from the Tesda Certification Office spent practically the entire two weekends testing the NC II applicants.
“We finished the Saturday assessment at 11:30pm and we are going to finish today’s batch even if it will take us until 1:30am,” Ramos told The SUN on Feb 17.
Labatt Dela Torre said assessment of the 100th candidate was finished at 3:30am.
On the second weekend, she said the assessors, who were down to two from six on the first weekend, would assess all candidates who would stay on until the next morning.
She said each candidate was told of the result soon after she had demonstrated her massage skills on a “client” in a two-hour session. Certification followed each time an applicant passed muster.
Ramos said Hong Kong is the first OFW destination this year for the certification team, which reaches out to countries where there are large concentrations of Filipino workers.
She said Tesda trainings and assessments help OFWs, especially helpers, level up in the career ladder in preparation for their integration into the economy when they go home.
“We’re happy to see our workers acquiring skills through Tesda’s development courses, such as massage therapy and caregiving, which equip them for a career change,” she said, adding they can even use their training to become entrepreneurs.
