Modern skills training center to rise in GenSan

             Rafael Abrogar II, director of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-Region 12 (PHOTO COURTESY OF TESDA-12, MINDANAO EXPOSE’) 

GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has begun preparations for the construction this year of a modern technical-vocational (tech-voc) skills training center here. 

Rafael Abrogar II, director of TESDA 12 (Soccsksargen), said Tuesday, January 12, the modern training facility would be established in a government-owned property in Barangay Tinagacan, in partnership with the South Cotabato first district congressional office and the city government.

Abrogar said the congressional office, as committed earlier by Rep. Shirlyn Bañas-Nograles, has allotted an initial P10 million to start the project’s implementation.

The city government, through Mayor Ronnel Rivera, had donated a one-hectare lot in Barangay Tinagacan as the site of the training center, which has a funding requirement of about P45 million, he said.

Abrogar said they pushed for the development of a skills training center to expand the rollout of its scholarship programs, especially for the poor and marginalized residents.

He said Nograles, a former vice mayor of General Santos City, gave her full support to the project when she won and assumed last year as representative of South Cotabato’s first district, which includes this city.

Abrogar said they are targeting to complete the initial phase of the facility before the end of the year

“(Rep. Nograles) vowed to help us start with the implementation of the training programs while the construction of the facility is ongoing,” he said in a statement.

The planned training center here is the seventh in the region in the past two years.

Two other facilities broke ground late last year in Surallah town, South Cotabato, and Pigcawayan, North Cotabato.

Abrogar said the training centers were designed to offer four to eight skills training programs focusing on the needs of local industries and companies, especially those engaged in construction.

These include driving, cookery, shielded metal arc welding, automotive repair, electrical installation maintenance, tile setting, carpentry, masonry, and electronic product assembly and servicing. (RICHELYN GUBALANI, PNA, MINDANAO EXPOSE’)