THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) encouraged Filipino youth to enroll in agriculture-related Training courses and engage more into the agricultural sector.

One of the programs highlighted by Tesda was on modern rice farming, as the agency produces more training programs for young people from both rural and urban areas.

The agricultural sector is one of the priority sectors of Tesda as identified in the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan (NTESDP) 2018-2022.

Tesda Deputy Director Aniceto Bertiz 3rd said that the youth may participate in these agricultural training programs, especially as scholarship programs are available for them under the Program on Accelerating Farm School Establishment (PAFSE) and Rice Extension Services Program (RESP).

PAFSE is part of the enterprise-based training of the agency that promotes farm schools and the use of the "farmer to farmer, learning by doing" methodology.

For the RESP, Tesda offers courses nationwide on the following: Farm Field School on Production of High-Quality Inbred Rice and Seed Certification and Farm Mechanization; Rice Machinery Operations; Drying and Milling Plant Servicing NC 3; Agro-entrepreneurship NC 2; Pest and Nutrients Management; and Digital Agriculture Course in the Farm Field School (FFS).

With an ongoing partnership with Israel's Agro-Studies to provide trainers and professors in the agriculture sector to pursue advanced studies on modernized farming, Tesda aims to continuously improve and expand its services in the agricultural center to achieve food self-sufficiency.

"We are developing more training courses for agriculture including the post-harvest training programs for them to market their products," Bertiz added.

Meanwhile, a new school in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was established by Tesda to boost technical and vocational (tech-voc) education.

The Cordillera State Institute of Technical Education (CSITE) will be the integration of the Baguio City School of Arts and Trades, Tesda Regional and Provincial Training Centers, and other public training institutions in the region.

It will offer training and livelihood courses in the areas of agriculture, industrial technology and hard trades, tourism and hospitality, health and well-wellness, business, computer and informational technology, among others.

Industry-academe collaboration and critical partnerships with local and international institutions will also be forged under the CSITE for mutual skills benchmarking standards, program exchange and internship training.

Tesda emphasized that these collaborations would equip its graduates with competencies and preferred job access.

Bertiz said that the new school will play a pivotal role in helping learners who are out-of-school youth and those from low-income families, including persons with disabilities.

"It will make them more productive, self-reliant, and to be developed into globally-competitive middle-to-high-level skilled labor force to hasten the social and economic development of the entire CAR," he added.

Bertiz also noted that this development came at an opportune time in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"CSITE will lead to more responsive course offerings and deliver higher level programs. As the very first in the Philippines, it can be a model to other regions," he said.

Baguio Rep. Marquez Go, National Institute for Technical Education and Skills Development Executive Director David Bungallon and Tesda CAR Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Jovencio Ferrer Jr. were also present during the inauguration ceremony of CSITE in Baguio City.