CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — A total of 10 Indigenous Peoples from barangay Mawacat in Floridablanca, Pampanga completed their course under the Barangay Electrician Program.
The training is part of the Memorandum of Agreement between Department of National Defense and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in support to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Electricians from the 355th Aviation Engineer Wing (AEW), who graduated from the Trainer’s Methodology Training of TESDA, taught the trainees on the basics of electrical works.
“This is in consonance with the new role of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police within the Poverty Reduction, Livelihood, and Employment Cluster (PRLEC) as skills instructors for the residents of the 882 priority barangays of NTF-ELCAC nationwide as presented during the PRLEC National Cluster Meeting,” 355th AEW Civil-Military Operations Officer First Lieutenant Argie Clarence Torralba said.
The community-based training includes hands-on exercises that the instructors closely supervised while observing health protocols.
“We opted to train them with this particular skill because they do not have the skill in electrical works yet. Whenever they needed to fix something that is electrical-related, they still need to go down the mountains to hire someone to do the work for them. This way, we are teaching them how to be self-sustaining. All the participants passed the training, which makes them now eligible and capable of performing basic electrical works in the barangay,” Torralba added.
For his part, TESDA Pampanga Provincial Director and Provincial PRLEC Chairperson Eric Ueda said the training is essential to the community as it will help them gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to sustain their community.
“We will follow through the trainings already conducted with entrepreneurship training to capacitate them to conduct business enterprise with their gained knowledge in welding, bread and pastry production, organic agricultural production, and now this electrical works,” Ueda added.
Meanwhile, Ueda thanked the 355th AEW, whom he cited as their partner in nation-building.
He also urged the beneficiaries of the training program to take advantage of the skills they acquire and use them to better their lives.
“It is the desire of the government to better everyone’s conduction and we in the government with the private sector are in one with this. Hoping that you will use your learnings and newly-acquired skills for you, your community, and an asset to find work,” the director said.
Aside from the trainings, the participants will also be included in the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers program of Department of Labor and Employment.