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TAGUIG CITY, June 11, 2026 (SDN) — From January 2025 to December 2025, a total of 1,367,154 trainees completed their technical-vocational (tech-voc) courses. Meaning, they are now tech-voc graduates.

Information that SDN Online gathered showed that around 250,000 trainees, less than 1/4 of the total 2025 training graduates, made it free through scholarship vouchers provided by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), using its 2025 approximate Php16 billion fund for the free tech-voc courses offered through the TVIs scattered Philippine-wide and a separate a number of TESDA-owned training schools.

The job hopefuls trained in different competencies or skills from more than 4,000 technical vocational institutes (TVIs), partners across the country of TESDA currently headed by Director General and Secretary Francisco “Kiko” B. Benitez.

Note that not even 1/4 of the 1,367,154 graduates took their courses on a scholarship fund.

Appointed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., he replaced in August 2024 then Secretary Suharto T. Mangudadatu who resigned as he joined the political race for governor of Maguindanao del Norte, Bangsamoro region, during the 2025 National and Local Elections (NPE).

On Tuesday, June 9, Benitez, a former congressman for the Third District of Negros Occidental, among other past political engagements, also former president of the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), conducted a Meet-&-Greet session with some 30 reporters from Print, TV, Radio, and Online News outfits.

Among the topics he discussed, he revealed that scholarship funds allocated by Congress for the Filipino poor is still wanting, indicating indirectly that for more trainees more budget is needed.

He also cited the weight the TESDA’s National Competency (NC) certificates among local and, even more important, foreign companies and employers. TESDA NCs, he points out, are “industry-verified and industry standard. Industry is looking for it and it’s more appreciated abroad.”

The TESDA director general rattled off some numbers on the employability rating of the agency’s graduates, saying the chances they are going to land a job or get employed is from 83 percent to 86 percent. He pointed out that job mismatches are being addressed as well through partnerships with Industry Boards launched in 2025.

In relation with this, the former politician and PWU president said that under his watch, aside from the NC I and II certificates given for HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration), TESDA is also into expanding the competency certificates to the levels of NC IV and NC V aimed at raising the talents, abilities, and qualifications of workers.

Benitez, at least the meeting, did not directly ask Congress or Malacanang to allocate more funds for TESDA’s various scholarship programs. But if one reads between the lines, the message is clear!

It was his first time to do so, a friendly exchange highlighted by a Question and Answer (Q&A) engagement, giving the media an opportunity to shoot their minds off about TESDA and its programs, projects, and services.

Before the Q&A, Benitez and the event’s special guest, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Ramon “Mon” A. Ilagan, a former broadcast journalist, erstwhile politician and mayor of Cainta (2004 to 2013), treated the media attendees to a tour within the sprawling TESDA Complex of some of its industry partners’ well-equipped training facilities.

He said the agency is not done expanding and upgrading its programs and training modules to ensure that Filipino workers would be future-ready and competitive as the digital era transforms the workplace.

Aside from this, TESDA continues to review its training standards as it adds modern programs that respond to and address the speedy transformation of industry brought about by new technologies.

To achieve this forward-looking initiatives of the agency, Benitez said they are actively pursuing collaboration with various countries to align the competency standards of the Philippines to international benchmark.

More figures to ponder, which SDN Online gathered from TESDA:

Of the 1,367,154 tech-voc graduates in 2025 as cited in the lead paragraph of this article, female  outnumber men by 9,286 as the former totalled 688,220 and latter at 678,934. The figures were collated from the country’s 16 regions, including the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which has a total of 22,262 graduates — 9,994 female and 12,268 male.

When it comes to the number of graduates who were assessed and certified under 2025 Scholarship (January-November 2025):

Luzon — 

• Graduates, 53,898 male and 47,192 female (101,090 total)
• Assessed, 37,426 male and 32,150 female (69,576)
• Certified (those who received NCs), 32,235 male and 30,005 female (65,240)

Visayas —

• Graduates, 24,265 male and 20,089 female (44,354)
• Assessed, 16,472 male and 14,328 female (30,800)
• Certified, 15,528 male and 13,290 female (28.818)

Mindanao — 

• Graduates, 23,194 male and 19,291 female (42,485)
• Assesed, 17,210 male and 14,047 female (31,257)
• Certified, 16,017 male and 13,133 female (29,150)

SDN Online also has the Number of Enrolled by Sector, Qualification (WTR and WTR Cluster) and Ranking: January-December 2025:

TESDA Sector — 

• Tourism (Hotel and Restaurant) / Bread and Pastry Production II (Training Qualification), 48,977 enrolled
• Automotive and Land Transportation / Driving II, 46,552
• Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery / Organic Agriculture Production II, 31,782
• Tourism (Hotel and Restaurant) / Cookery II, 25,300
• Electrical and Electronics / Electrical Installation and Maintenance II, 23,819
• Human Health and Health Care / Caregiving II, 23,103
• Electrical and Electronics / Computer Systems Servicing II, 20,746
• Metals and Engineering / Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) II, 20,609
• Metals and Engineering / Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) I, 20,119
• Tourism (Hotel and Restaurant) / Housekeeping II, 17,979

TESDA has various scholarship programs catering to different sectors. — EDD K. USMAN (/)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)

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To be updated