Skill Olympics institutionalized in city

City officials recently institutionalized the ‘Matakal Jen Obda’ Skills festival in the city every last week of September, creating a working committee for the purpose and providing funds for the activities.

Under Ordinance No. 07, series of 2024, institutionalizing the aforesaid festival aims to highlight the relevance of high-quality work and craftsmanship through relevant skills and competencies.

Further, it aims to master while promoting active collaboration among stakeholders like those from the technical-vocational institutions in the city, those that are in the creative centers and skills-based industries, budding entrepreneurs, local talents and skilled workers all partnering with the local government.

The ordinance created a festival working committee to plan, implement, monitor, and assess the conduct of the festival which shall be comprised of the local chief executive as the Chairperson, representative from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) as Vice Chairperson with the Baguio Federation of Technical-Vocational Institutes as implementing office. The members of the committee shall include the Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Education, Culture, Creativity and Historical Research, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) Baguio, representative from the City Schools Division Office, representative from the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), representative from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), one representative from the public senior high schools offering technical-vocational and livelihood strand, one representative from private senior high schools offering the TVL strand, one representative from the Baguio Creative Council, one representative from public Technical-vocational institutions, one representative from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), one representative from the information technology and business process outsourcing industry and one representative from the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC)., Public Employment Services office and representative from Onjon ni Ivadoy.

Among the functions of the committee include to craft a skills festival plan and supervise its implementation; conduct the festival assessment and submit its recommendations to the implementing office if any; help in tapping other partner offices and institutions if only to further strengthen the objectives and purpose of the festival; conduct an impact study on the significance of the skills festival in the promotion of the city’s skills index and perform such other essential functions as may be deemed necessary.

The festival program and activities shall be composed of skills fair and exhibit, local skills Olympics, skills and innovations summit cum career fair, skills benchmarking, skills demonstration by special education learners, skills presentation related to indigenous peoples creative practices, capacity development for trainers and creative skills advocates and such other activities and programs as determined by the committee.

The ordinance mandated the allocation of some P500,000 that shall be included under the budget of the City Administrator’s Office for the said skills festival subject to government accounting and auditing rules and regulations. The funding will primarily be used for the conduct of the activities that will be lined up for the festival, consultations, collaborative meetings and capacity development training for creative skills advocates and other stakeholders. – Dexter A. See