DOTr inks MOU with UK for railway, maritime education partnerships

MANILA: According to Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Art Tugade, the Philippines and the United Kingdom will lay the foundation of transportation continuity and growth by investing in people through education and skills development partnerships in the railway and maritime sectors.

Secretary Tugade said this during the ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the PH-UK Education Partnerships in Transportation.

DOTr’s Philippine Railway Institute (PRI) and Marina Industry Authority (MARINA), as well as the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) and Solent University of the United Kingdom will implement the partnerships.

The signing of the MOU is an important part of the partnership, as it formalizes the two countries’ cooperation in terms of education and training in the rail and maritime sectors.

Education and skills training, according to Sec. Tugade, are critical for the Philippines’ transportation sector to continue growing.

“It is sweet indeed that today we gather here in order to plant the seeds for education. Why education? Because we want to have continuity,” Sec. Tugade stated.

The PRI and the UK-NSAR have teamed up to create a highly qualified, professional, and world-class rail workforce. It also aims to strengthen the country’s railway sector, which has been lagging behind its Asian neighbors for nearly three decades.

Among the programs covered under the MOU are railway safety, an accreditation system for the railway sector’s training providers, worldwide recognition, and the provision of rail courses and apprenticeships.

Sec. Tugade emphasized that the alliance will benefit Filipino seafarers since the country is an archipelago and a key source of 30% of the world’s skilled mariners.

“You want this to continue? You have to put technical people there. You want the advantage of seafarers to continue? You need to have education,” he said, adding that the partnership between the MARINA and the Solent University will assist the Philippine maritime sector and Filipino seamen.

Maritime Education and Training (MET) programs will be established under the MARINA-Solent University MOU to address the human resource needs of the maritime education sector in the country.

Sec. Tugade and UK Parliament for Gloucester Member and Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to the Philippines Richard Graham noted the benefits of skills training in the railway and maritime industries.

“You are giving us the seeds so that the growth which we like to achieve in the maritime sector and the development that we like to achieve in the railway sector can continue, continue, and continue steadily so that the Philippines can grow,” Sec. Tugade stated.

“These twin events on both railway and maritime reflect that partnership between the UK and the Philippines across many sectors,” Graham said. “The skills, whether in maritime or rail, all these things are in transition into a new world of innovation and technology.”

Photos from Department of Transportation

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