A shrimp school practicing a socially responsible, sustainable and environmentally-sound production system and first of its kind to be accredited by TESDA will soon operate in Jiabong, Samar through the collaboration of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) 8, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 8, and the Hipon Iangat ang ProduksyON (HIPON) Program.

Through the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between BFAR and TESDA on July 13, 2022 in Tacloban City, said agencies bound its effort on honing technical personnel proficient on shrimp grow-out farms and hatcheries management. It envisions to increase the production of high-quality shrimps and improve shrimp product marketability both in local and international markets.

A TESDA competency based training curriculum will be developed and adapted by the shrimp school located at Jiabong Aquaculture Production and Technology Center (JAPTC) in a bid to become an accredited assessment center by the TESDA. Further, scholarship slots for prospective trainers will be granted by the TESDA 8 while monitoring of the program progress will be handled by the HIPON program. More then Php.7 M has been downloaded by the BFAR Central Office through the HIPON program to the BFAR 8 for the establishment of the model shrimp school.

Through this initiative, learning modules will be developed with all the regional Shrimp Program focal persons in the country through Cluster Workshops. Trainers’ training will also be conducted by the agencies to ensure good quality of the competence-based standard curriculum which is estimated to have a duration of four (4)- eight ( 8 ) months. TESDA, BFAR 8 and HIPON program targets to start the said workshop this August 2022 and expects to launch the learning modules to be used under this competence-based standard curriculum by 2023. To date, both agencies are conducting regular meetings and workshops for the development of its learning modules and in preparation of the shrimp school’s launching on the last quarter of 2022.