Cuneta Astrodome, Pasay City
23 June 2015

President Benigno S. Aquino III lauded the new graduates of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Special Training for Employment Program (STEP) during the Mass Graduation Ceremonies and Awarding of Toolkits held at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.

“Kahanga-hanga kayong lahat dahil pinatunayan ninyo: Ang Pilipino, anuman ang kanyang edad, saan man ang kanyang pinanggalingan, kapag binigyan mo ng pagkakataon, talagang susulitin niya, hindi lang upang iangat ang sarili, kundi para makatulong din sa pamilya, at sa kalakhang lipunan,” the President said.

He commended TESDA’s reforms and initiatives that widened the employment opportunities to many of its students through its Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) — increasing its employment rate to 70% within six months after graduation, which he said is a huge improvement compared to the previous administration’s 28.5% employment rate.

He also recognized 24 outstanding STEP scholars from the different courses and awarded them with toolkits they can use for employment.

Earlier this year, TESDA received the nationwide ISO 9001:2008 certification proving that the agency has rendered quality service.

STEP is a community-based training program which addresses the need to help the indigent Filipino youths in technical skills for employment. The beneficiaries are at least 15 years old coming from Filipino indigent families. They get free training on technical-vocational (tech-voc) courses to help them become self-employed. Each scholar receives an allowance of Php60 per training day, free entrepreneurship seminar and starter toolkits.

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