A garbage collector does a balancing act while stacking up bags of trash on a moving dump truck en route to a waste transfer station in Barangay Santo Ni帽o, Marikina City, in this photo taken on April 11, 2020.聽 (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The lowly 鈥渂asurero鈥� (trash collector) will now be equipped with the professional skills needed in their 鈥渨orkplace鈥� as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) opens its first training center for garbage collection in Teresa town, Rizal province.
The Tesda provincial office in Rizal inaugurated the pioneer training center on Aug. 30 in partnership with the local government of Teresa, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday. This will be part of Tesda鈥檚 thrust to improve the skills of garbage collectors and at the same time, as a response to the impact of climate change
According to Tesda Director General Suharto Mangudadatu, the agency intends to 鈥減rofessionalize鈥� garbage collection by turning it into a full-fledged occupation.
鈥淕arbage collectors have to deal with our daily trash. In this thankless yet very important job, they make sure waste gets removed from our homes and is moved to the landfills,鈥� he said.
Magudadatu said that with proper training, garbage collectors would know how to safely handle and dispose of waste, ultimately easing the impact of garbage on the environment.
Training hours
Targeted to start in the fourth quarter of the year, the training will require 104 hours and will focus on sorting and removing unnecessary items, arranging these, and implementing mitigation measures to eliminate environmental risks and hazards in the workplace.
It will also cover learning the proper maintenance of work areas, tools, and equipment; and the use of gloves, masks, boots or safety shoes, raincoats, safety goggles, and reflectorized vests.
A trainee who completes the program is considered competent to be a 鈥減alero鈥� or garbage collector.
Graduates who will pass the National Competency Assessment and receive certification will be called a 鈥渟anitary landfill facility site foreman.鈥�
In a Viber message to the Inquirer, Tesda Rizal director Maria Roque said the Teresa Learning Resource Center and Materials Recovery Facility was able to comply with the required tools, equipment, and materials for the garbage collection training course.
鈥淎side from that, there are additional equipment like paper and charcoal maker, coconut weaving equipment, bio-reactor and coconut weaving,鈥� she said.
The first batch of trainees, composed of garbage collectors from Teresa, will be funded by the municipal government.
Tesda said the Teresa training center, like other accredited training institutions by the agency, will collect around P2,000 from interested learners for training costs; a miscellaneous fee of P400 for a dust mask, a pair of socks, and gloves; and P850 as an assessment fee.
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Competencies
Tesda said its 鈥渢raining regulation鈥� for garbage collection, or a document that outlines the competencies needed for the development of a curriculum, instructional materials, and assessment tools, was circulated in 2015.
It was also that year when Sen. Joel Villanueva, then Tesda chief, said the training program would provide graduates with a chance to improve their lives with the new credential that could serve as a 鈥渂asis for salary increase鈥� and promotion.
While Tesda did not provide the salary rate for trash collectors, a source in a city government in Metro Manila said those employed by the local government receive the daily minimum wage, around P570.
Mangudadatu said Tesda had also included environmental literacy courses in its online program, including topics such as 鈥淓xercising sustainable development in the workplace,鈥澛� 鈥淥rienting oneself to environmentally sustainable work standards,鈥� and 鈥淧erforming solid waste management in the workplace.鈥�