TESDA to offer 5 more foreign language courses for free

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) announced it will soon make available five additional foreign language training courses to boost Filipino workers' skills in the country and abroad.

TESDA officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta said the language-related courses —Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Italian and French —will be added to the existing courses under its National Skills Language Center (NLSC).

“As we continue to respond to the demands of our workers, we shall soon be offering various language courses in partnership with foreign embassies and other interested international organizations,” Urdaneta said.

TESDA will also be teaching the foreign country’s culture for Filipino workers to easily adapt to its mother tongue and customs.

"The Mandarin is needed as we open our tourism, thus we conduct our training. It is also needed for BPOs or call handlers catering to Chinese or ASEAN customers," TESDA Deputy Director General for Operations Aniceto “John” Bertiz III said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

Learning the Italian and French languages, meanwhile, is needed with the opening of jobs in cruise ships, Bertiz said.

"Lahat po ng ating mga training courses sa TESDA ay puwede pong i-avail ng ating mga kababayan nang libre," Bertiz said.

(All of our training courses in TESDA could be availed by our countrymen for free.)

Allowances will also be given under the scholarship programs.

Currently, TESDA’s NLSC is offering English Proficiency for Customer Service Workers, Japanese Language and Culture, Japanese Language and Culture Level II, and Spanish Language for Different Vocations.

In 2021, there were 1,148 graduates from the NLSC, of which 508 students finished English Proficiency for Customer Service Workers; 450 in Japanese Language and Culture; and 190 in Spanish Language for Different Vocations.

Among the graduates of the TESDA language courses were uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), employees of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and OFWs.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in his inaugural address on June 30 that “sharpening the language skills” of Filipino workers, including Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), is important to give them the advantage to survive and thrive in foreign countries.—Jamil Santos/LDF, GMA News