TESDA Opens 175 Technology Scholarships for Women

MANILA, June 21 — In celebration of National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) month, the International Labour Organization and the Technical Education and Skills Development (TESDA) , has announced the opening of 175 scholarships for women for Information Technology.

The scholarship programme is part of the #womencandoIT scholarship programme under the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Philippines.

“Women in STEM-related industries across South-East Asia face various challenges that reduce entry, retention and advancement in these industries. This scholarship programme seeks to encourage more women to explore and to find more training and employment opportunities in Information Technology-related training programmes given the future of work,” said Khalid Hassan, Director, ILO Country Office for the Philippines.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority , the Information Technology and Business Process Management sector is among the largest employers of women in the country, where 53 per cent of its employees are women, significantly higher than the national figure of 39.6 per cent. The sector has created an average of 100,00 new jobs every year, growing from 527,000 full time employees (FTE) in 2010 to 1.1 million full time employees in 2016.

“This scholarship programme aims to spark interest and train women in STEM-related industries. This will also ensure training and employment assistance to companies who are in need of workers in the IT-BPM industry,” said Tesda Director General Guiling Mamondiong.

Under the scholarship programme, women can avail of scholarship slots for technical-vocational education trainings (TVET) for Animation, Game Development and Web Development. Training programmes shall range from 2 to 7 months training at partner schools in Taguig, Las Pinas, Quezon City and Pasig. In addition to these technical training programmes, the scholars will receive career coaching that will enhance their employability in the information technology workplace.

Interested women applicants can choose to apply at the Human Resource Development Institute (Taguig), Top Peg Animation (Las Pinas), Bayan Academy (Quezon City) and MFI Polytechnic Institute (Pasig). They must at least be 18-45 years of age, a high school graduate, interested and passionate about technology. Deadline of applications is on July 2, 2018. To know how to apply for these scholarships, check the attached poster for more details.

The ILO Women in STEM Workforce Readiness and Development Programme in the Philippines is funded by JPMorgan Chase Foundation . It seeks to provide women with critical soft and technical STEM-related skills, employability and leadership training coupled with targeted mentorship to help women gain quality employment and advancement opportunities in STEM-related jobs. (ILO)