The Center Administrator of RTC-KorPhil Davao Engr. Constantino B. Panes Jr. Ed.D visited on 23 February 2024 the President of the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) Dr. Bonifacio G. Gabales Jr. at the Bo. Obrero, Iñigo Street, Davao City to discuss possible collaboration in the areas of curriculum and instruction, research and development, and community extension.
Dr. Gabales Jr., the 7th University President of USeP who assumed in the post on 12 November 2023, welcomed the team from TESDA and expressed nagging desire to partner with RTC-KorPhil Davao.
In the discussion, Dr. Gabales pushed to explore the mapping and marrying of USeP curriculum to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) of the short term and 3-Year Diploma of Technology Programs of the RTC-KorPhil Davao. He said that skilled workers produced by TESDA are high demands in the industry and should not be touted as second class to the CHEd graduates because they possess competencies needed in the various labor sectors.
Dr. Gabales shared about stackable competencies where RTC-KorPhil Davao and USeP can explore such that a student can learn skills or competencies piecemeal, say a short term qualification in TESDA which can be carried over to the next competency all leading to a higher competency such as Diploma Certificate, Bachelor’s Degree and even to Graduate programs.
The vision of the two institutions is to have complementary program offerings such where short term and 3-year Diploma of Technology graduates of TESDA KorPhil Davao can proceed to Bachelor’s in USeP and college students with stacked competencies schooled by USeP can have equivalent certifications in short terms and Diploma of TESDA, making them a more competitive, certified graduates.
Initial plans for pilot program is the current efforts of the USeP to train men and women behind bars at the Davao City Jail where RTC-KorPhil Davao can complement its offerings helping Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDL) finish Bachelor’s degree preparing for their reentry in the community.
Aside from curriculum and instruction, the now partners will also brew programs in the research and development aspects such as benchmarking of research best practices, sharing of research resources and experts, among others.
In the same meeting, the Center also invited Dr. Gabales to be a member in the TESDA Technology Institution Advisory Council (TAC) of RTC-KorPhil Davao representing the academe sector together with members from the economic and government sectors.
As of this writing, documentary communications are underway to mount workshops before the first quarter of 2024 ends to iron out the plans of the partnership that will soon impact lives and communities served by USeP and RTC-KorPhil Davao.
