Vocational education and training co-operation in Asia expanded
New contract with Philippines
06.05.2015
The German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and the Philippine Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) signed a co-operation agreement in the context of the visit of the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III. The Philippines is the fourth ASEAN country to co-operate with the BIBB in the field of vocational education and training after the co-operation with two main stakeholders of vocational education and training in Thailand had recently been expanded.
For the second time this year, the BIBB expanded its international advisory service activities in the Southeast Asian region. After signing a co-operation agreement with the Philippine Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) on 19 September 2014 in Berlin, the BIBB now collaborates on issues pertaining to vocational education and training with partner institutes from a total of four ASEAN countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines.
The main objective of the co-operation agreement with the TESDA is the scientific support of an evidence-based education reform in the Philippines through the BIBB, in addition to the regular exchange of information and experience. The Philippines look back to a long and successful co-operation history with Germany in the field of vocational education and training. The Philippines have already a dual system of vocational education and training in place and the legal basis for expansion of the system is provided. In the increasingly competitive context of the ASEAN free trade zone, the Philippines, too, are under considerable pressure to further develop their vocational education and training system.
The signing of the co-operation agreement by BIBB President Prof. Friedrich Hubert Esser and the Director General of TESDA, Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva, took place on the occasion of the visit of the President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III. The agreement was signed in the context of the ceremony of signature of the memorandum of understanding for co-operation in the field of vocational education and training between the two governments, represented by the German Ambassador Thomas Ossowski and the Philippine Ambassador Maria Natividad.
The BIBB is a scientific and research institute and the competence centre for vocational education and advanced training in Germany. The BIBB is active in a global network and currently maintains 29 international co-operation agreements. One main field of action is in the Asian region, where the BIBB maintains agreements with the four above-mentioned Southeast Asian countries and in part has intensively provided advice on issues pertaining to vocational education and training for more than a decade. It moreover is active in Korea, China and India, to name a few other countries.