The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is urging returning overseas Filipino workers to avail its free online agricultural courses.
TESDA said that tourism remains to be the most in demand course among OFWs and their dependents from March to December 2020. There were at least 23,818 enrollees for the said course.
TESDA director general Isidro Lapeña said that learning new skills like the online agriculture course will surely help them in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It became more difficult to earn this pandemic because many Filipinos have lost their jobs and livelihood, especially in the Tourism sector,” Lapeña said Thursday in a statement.
“However, we can also take the courses under the agriculture sector so we can ensure that more of us will know how to produce our own food for our families and loved ones,” he added.
The TESDA chief said that OFWs can take their agriculture-related skills and become agripreneurs.
TESDA said that face-to-face training under the agri-fishery sector is also now available.
The agriculture sector courses only had 2,679 OFWs enrolled for the fruit grower. No OFWs enrolled in the eight other courses.
About 86,100 OFWS including their dependents were among the over 1 million enrollees in TESDA online courses. (TDT)
