LOREN CALLS FOR MORE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS

TACLOBAN CITY - Senator Loren Legarda today urged the establishment of more vocational and entrepreneurial schools to teach women and youth livelihood skills and help boost the economy.

Addressing the graduates of the Councilor Cristina Romualdez's Learn and Earn Program here, Loren said that such schools will help provide employment to women and young people, provide support for their families and at the same time enhance the economy.

Speaking in Tagalog, Loren said that learning and earning centers, as well as schools that teach entrepreneurship, are needed to grow the economy especially at these times when the country is being battered by the global economic crisis.

"We need more learning and earning centers, as well as entrepreneurial schools, that teach livelihood skills and entrepreneurship to our people so that they can find themselves independent means of income, and thus activate the communal as well as national economy," declared Loren.

She praised Tacloban City Mayor Alfredo Romualdez and his wife, Councilor Cristina Romualdez, for establishing such schools on their own initiative, making Tacloban one of the progressive cities of the country.

To the graduates, she expressed hope that their training would give them independent means of income from their skills in cosmetics, dress-making, cooking and restaurant management so that they could help their families boost their capacity for better lives and be able to send family members to school to learn higher technology and professions.

She noted that the Learn and Earn With Cristina Center has been awarded by the Department of Education for "Best Practices" in vocational and entrepreneurial education. "This is a well-deserved accolade," Loren said.