TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 23 (PIA) –Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado is lining up the Capitol Motor Pool as an automotive assessment and training center, as a technical education and skills development training priority.
The governor’s pitch came as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) reported the apparent need for certified automotive mechanics to run the government accredited auto-service shops.
The issue on the lack of automotive service technicians with national certification like the one which the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) can give to trained automotive servicing mechanics from accredited automotive assessment centers, surfaced as the industry is short of training and assessment centers.
This is considering also that it is expensive to set up and equip a training and assessment center especially for automotive servicing, narrates TESDA Bohol supervising TESD specialist Joan Sayon, who spoke during the recent Kapihan sa PIA, September 20 at the PIA studio.
Sketchy reports surfacing from the recent Provincial Technical Skills Development Council, which the governor himself chairs, revealed that the plan for Capitol to acquire a separate lot for the purpose, has already been budget-allocated, during the last budget hearing, to address the DTI concern on the lack of automotive servicing mechanics holding NC II certifications.
The young governor, who has shown foresight, considering that the Provincial Motor Pool is fast becoming a boneyard of vehicles in different states of disrepair, its staff clearly unable to cope up with the necessary repairs needed to get these vehicles back on the roads.
In fact, these vehicles needing repair are also using up much space which could have been used for guests parking at the new Capitol complex.
Observers also said that with the way the motor pool is requisitioning spare parts and the lengthy bureaucratic process of procurement contributes much to the slow turn over of vehicles.
Moreover, with politics coming into play, the practice of allowing drivers with barely any working knowledge of the mechanisms in a car added to the unnecessary pile up of vehicles constantly needing repairs that government motor pools could not cope up with.
“The governor’s plan actually helps a lot: it can allow the use of the extra hands from the trainees in getting the necessary repairs while it can also maximize on the repair accomplishment the motor pool direly needs, and then it can contribute to the need for more auto mechanics with NC II certifications and addresses the DTI Concerns,” said a member of the PTSDC. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
