By Bong Pedalino

Maasin City (June 19) -- For the current school year, 2009-2010, the province of Southern Leyte got 554 slots under the Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo scholarship program for tertiary technical-vocational education.

According to Rolando Juanillo, the Provincial Director of the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA), this year's PGMA scholarship vouchers have been allocated a budget of P 6,044,960.00.

In an interview over the phone, Juanillo said the slots were spread under different qualifications for National Certificate Level 2 category which required some four months of schooling at the earliest, after which the student can secure a certificate of training from the school as he/her ticket in seeking employment.

Among the technical and vocational courses in which the recipient scholars are now enrolled, the number of slots per course, and the corresponding schools are listed as follows:

• Building-Wiring Technician -- 50 slots -- Saint Joseph College (SJC)
• Consumer Electronic Servicing – 25 - do –
• Slaughtering operations -- 20 -- a school in Cebu
• Commercial cooking -- 50 (25 at Systems Technology Institute and 25 at the College of Maasin)
• Food and Beverage -- 50 (25 STI, 25 CM)
• Bartending -- 25 -- CM
• Health Care Services -- 75 -- 25 each at SJC-Main, Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) -Bontoc, and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (STAC)-Sogod
• Household Service – 23 -- SJC-Main
• Shielded Metal Arc Weilding -- 50 -- SJC Voch Tech Center
• Computer Hardware Servicing -- 136 -- 34 each at SJC-Main, STI, Southern Leyte Business College (SLBC, formerly Southern Leyte Computer Institute, SLCI), and Saint James College-Malitbog.
• Automotive Servicing -- 25 -- SJC Voch Tech
• Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Servicing -- 25 -- SJC Voch Tech

To qualify for a PGMA scholar, a student must be at least 18 years old but no more than 55 years old, a high school graduate, a college undergraduate who has shifted course, and should present a result from the National College Assessment Examination (NCAE), Juanillo said.

Those with no NCAE papers would submit to a youth profiling as required by the office, he added.

Among the privileges and benefits included free tuition, otherwise known as training cost, free assessment, and each student would receive a training support fund.

Meanwhile, Juanillo also revealed that his office was also able to acquire 49 slots under the ladderized education program.

A ladderized education entails the integration of certain competency requirements in the regular degree courses of a certain educational institution that lasted only from five months to two years, Juanillo explained.