The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) opened 2026 with its highest budget allocation to date, receiving P19 billion for the year.

TESDA Secretary Jose Francisco Benitez said during a Malacañang press briefing on Tuesday afternoon that the increased funding will be used to expand scholarship programs and support the agency’s continuing efforts to train child development workers nationwide.

“We are targeting somewhere between 600,000–650,000 learners for next year (2026), it depends on the average on the cost of training,” Benitez said.

In line with this, TESDA highlighted its ongoing coordination with the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Education to ensure that young Filipinos have employment opportunities even if they decide to leave formal education early.

“We have reached almost 190,000 senior high school students properly assessed and certified as employable NC2, NC3,” Benitez explained.

He added that TESDA continues to offer free skills assessment for senior high school students and graduates who wish to enroll in technical-vocational courses.

“The major issue for K-12 is whether or not the senior high school graduates are employable,” he said.

With the budget increase, Benitez assured that the free assessment program will remain in place in 2026, noting that employability rates range from 85 to 95 percent in sectors aligned with learners’ chosen skills.

“We can certify that as many of them that will take the assessment will be employable,” he said.

EBET expansion

The budget boost also signals TESDA’s push to further roll out and strengthen its Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) program, which partners with companies to deliver demand-driven, work-based technical-vocational training. The program blends on-the-job learning with classroom instruction to address job-skills mismatch and meet industry needs.

“Roll out of enterprise-based education and training in the Philippines was implemented in a year or so and 400–420 registered in the second half of 2025 and we are hoping to be able to target a hundred thousand,” Benitez said.