SAN JOSE, Antique – The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will provide skills training to all indigenous peoples (IPs) in the province by 2019.
TESDA provincial director Jose Gerry Hallares, in an interview Friday, said the training will help members of the cultural minorities acquire new skills for their livelihood.
Antique has around 18,000 cultural minorities composed of Ati, Iraynon Bukidnon and Cuyonin.
This year, TESDA started training IPs on masonry and wellness massage in five Antique towns.
“Our budget this year is only P1.5 million so it has been used for the training of IPs in the five towns,” Hallares said.
The training kicked off last August with the 15-day wellness massage training for 25 Atis in Barangay Tina, Tobias Fornier and 50 Iraynon Bukidnon in Libertad.
A total of 25 Atis from Barangay Igcococ, Sibalom were trained on masonry for 16 days in the same month.
There is an ongoing training on construction for Iraynon Bukidnon IPs from Valderrama and from San Jose de Buenavista.
The training is under the Special Program for Employment of Students, under which the IPs are given tool kits for self-employment.
Hallares said they are expecting a bigger budget next year to cover the trainings of more IP communities in the municipalities.
“I will be meeting the tribal leaders January next year so that I would know what particular skills training would they like to have,” he said.
In addition to the five mentioned municipalities, IP communities are also found in the towns of Laua-an, Culasi, Barbaza, Tibiao, and Anini-y. (With PNA/PN)
