The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will tap overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to become trainers and assessors.

“(This is) a new initiative and is open to all qualified OFWs. They will have to undergo the Trainers’ Methodology course and will have to pass the competency assessment,” TESDA Secretary Isidro Lapeña told the Philippine News Agency in an interview Wednesday.

Those who will pass will assist not just fellow OFWs, as they will become like the other accredited trainers and assessors, he added.

Lapeña said TESDA’s regional and provincial offices are tasked to cascade this invitation in their areas.

The OFW trainers or assessors will be paid an honorarium.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte has instructed TESDA to come up with special training to retool the OFWs. TESDA has been offering 71 free online skills training.

With the said instruction, Lapeña said he asked all the regional and provincial offices to put up an OFW desk similar to what the agency had put up in international airports, and also to designate a focal person per regional and provincial office to cater to the OFWs’ queries.

TESDA’s OFW Desks at the country’s international airports were mounted to better inform the OFWs of the assistance they can get from the agency, and also guide them about the available courses in TESDA, and how they can avail of these.

As of posting, almost all regional and provincial offices have already designated a focal staff, according to Lapeña.

“(With the establishment of OFW desk in TESDA offices), we expect faster actions since these are located in their respective areas. The OFWs can be immediately endorsed to training centers with available scholarship slots,” he said. (PNA)