MARKING a stronger push to connect reforms across basic education, higher education, technical-vocational education, and workforce development, the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) launched One Education during the 3rd Joint Education Trifocal Management Committee Meeting.
Carrying the tagline ‘Maraming Landas, Isang Sistema. Para Sa Bawat Pilipino,’ One Education serves as the unified brand and strategic communication platform of the trifocal education system, supporting DepEd, CHED, and Tesda in institutionalizing more seamless education pathways for learners. Through One Education, learners, families, schools, training institutions, employers, and partners will have a clearer and more accessible way to understand how education opportunities connect across the three agencies.
The initiative supports President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to strengthen Philippine education by making learning more connected, relevant, and responsive to the needs of learners, communities, and the economy.
Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara said One Education reflects the shared responsibility of DepEd, CHED, and Tesda to make the education system easier to understand and navigate.
‘One Education is a reminder that the dreams of our learners are no different. The bridge from basic education going to college, technical-vocational training, jobs, livelihood and lifelong learning must be clear. The more interconnected the systems, the easier for more Filipinos to see where they should start, advance, and succeed,’
Angara said in Filipino.
CHED Chairperson Shirley C. Agrupis highlighted how the initiative directly supports smoother student transitions into tertiary education.
‘Through One Education, we are ensuring that a learner’s prior academic and technical achievements-whether from senior high school or tech-voc programs-are recognized and credited by our HEIs. This ensures that no effort is wasted as we build a more direct, seamless path for our learners to transition successfully into the modern workforce,’ Agrupis explained.
Tesda Director General Jose Francisco Benitez put focus on the landscape of today’s world of work, where skills have become the global currency and that a unified education system is essential to help learners thrive in this new reality.
‘The demands of work today are vastly different from yesterday’s. That’s why education must keep pace with the times. In the past two years, we have been building seamless education pathways for Filipino learners . . . One Education encompasses our goal of improving access to acquire new skills, earn certifications, or pursue further studies. Because whether it’s Tech-voc, Senior High, or College – all of that has a route to success,’ he said.
As part of the launch, the agencies also introduced the Education Reform Fellowship (ERF), a flagship initiative that will recruit, train, and mentor young professionals and reform-oriented talents who can support priority education and workforce development reforms.
Through ERF, fellows will be exposed to policy work, program implementation, data analysis, stakeholder engagement, strategic communication, and interagency coordination across the education and workforce development ecosystem.
The agencies also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Analytiks, Inc. for Project TAHANAN, a learner traceability and interoperability initiative that aims to improve learner tracking across basic education, higher education, technical-vocational education, and workforce development pathways.
Project TAHANAN seeks to support the secure and seamless sharing of learner data to help the government craft better policies, programs, and learner support mechanisms across the education-to-workforce continuum.
Together, One Education, ERF, and Project TAHANAN support a common goal: making reforms clearer to the public, strengthening the people who will help implement them, and improving the data needed to guide decisions across the trifocal education system.