TAGUIG CITY -- With the start of face-to-face classes, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is encouraging schools, students, and parents to avail of its free online course on COVID-19 prevention.

TESDA Director General Danilo P. Cruz said the schools, colleges, and universities both the public and private sector may take online course designed to prevent the spread of the deadly virus among the faculty and studentry.

“As we set to open our schools for full face-to-face classes, we are inviting everyone to enroll in our free online courses related to COVID-19 management to help prevent the spread of the virus and adapt to the changes brought by it,” he said.

“This course is available at e-tesda.gov.ph and can be easily accessed by the public anytime and anywhere using their internet-capable smartphones, computers, or laptops,” he added.

At the start of the pandemic, it may be recalled that TESDA has developed the online course “Practicing COVID-19 Preventive Measures in the Workplace” which was integrated into its TESDA Online Program (TOP).

The “Practicing COVID-19 Preventive Measures in the Workplace” course has always been among the most popular courses in the TOP.  In 2020, more than 142,000 completed the course, while another 383,826 took it in 2021.

Cruz noted that TESDA has linked free online courses about COVID-19 management from other open sources, such as the “Contact Tracing Course” of the Johns Hopkins University, and “COVID-19: How to put on and remove personal protective equipment (PPE)” and “Standard precautions: Hand hygiene” of the World Health Organization (WHO), among others.

Enrollees to the TOP receive an electronic certificate of completion when they finish a course.  Those who complete courses for full qualifications can undergo a competency assessment and receive a National Certificate.

Aside from the website, the TOP can also be accessed through its own mobile app, which can be downloaded for smartphones via Google Play or App Store.

It offers 150 courses in various sectors including construction, automotive and land transport, electrical and electronics, among others.

Since its launch in 2012, the TESDA Online Program currently has more than four million registered users. (TESDA)