The Land Transportation and Franchising and Regulatory Board-Cordillera is calling on interested jeepney drivers and their family members and other stakeholders who may be affected by the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP), to apply to the technical-vocational (tech-voc) scholarship program.
The Technical Education Skills and Development Authority and the Department of Transportation signed on Dec. 11 a memorandum of agreement on the “Tsuper Iskolar” as a support mechanism component for those who will be displaced by the PUVMP.
Qualified to apply are displaced persons affected by the PUVMP, stakeholders who opt to voluntarily exit from the transport industry, stakeholders who opt to continue in the transport industry, new stakeholders in the transport industry, and family members/dependents of the affected stakeholders up to the third degree of consanguinity or affinity.
Engr. Elmer Mendoza, LTFRB focal person on Tsuper Iskolar, said there are nine courses under the program for Baguio and Benguet, which are all under National Certificate II, a Tesda-issued competency certificate.
The tech-voc courses with 25 slots allotted for Baguio City are bread and pastry production, slaughtering operations, and security services except for cookery with 50 slots. The 25 slots for driving course have already been filled up, said Mendoza.
For Benguet, particularly in La Trinidad, 25 slots are allotted each for heavy equipment operations for bulldozer, heavy equipment operations for hydraulic excavator, heavy equipment operations for wheel loader, and shielded metal arc welding.
Mendoza said LTFRB is in charge of evaluating qualified applicants based on the criteria prior to endorsing them to Tesda.
Interested applicants must present the copy of the PUV franchise.
Qualified recipients to the program will be entitled to free skills training and free skills assessment with training support fund equivalent to P350 to cover food and transportation allowance. They will also be provided with free entrepreneurship training. – Susan C. Aro
