On September 1, 2026, at the TESDA Leyte Provincial Office, Provincial Director Engr. Enrico C. Banario placed a certificate in the hands of Ethel Morales, CEO and Co-Founder of iStart International, with Co-Founder Mary Ann Pante beside her. There were documents to sign, hands to shake — and then it was in writing: the program is registered.
So here it is, plainly: AI Workplace Operations — our 64-hour course on using AI honestly and well at work, entrepreneurship module included — is now a TESDA-registered program.
That handover was day one of a week; here is the week in order, and then what it means for you.
What happened that week
September 1. At the TESDA Leyte Provincial Office in Tacloban City, iStart received its program registration: the certificate changed hands, and the documents were signed. Ms. Angelica M. Daza, the EBET Focal at that office, guided the registration.
September 2. The following day, the team paid a courtesy visit to Regional Director Dan M. Navarro, DPA, at the TESDA Region VIII (Eastern Visayas) office, also in Tacloban City — a conversation about what the program can do for young people across the region.
Friday, September 4. Ms. Daza came to see our training site in Bato, Leyte — the room whose sign reads "AI Innovation Lab." That room is where the face-to-face part of the course will happen: the orientation, and the supervised assessment.
Also that week. Ethel Morales and Mary Ann Pante paid a courtesy visit to Bryan Nile A. Gertos, Municipal Mayor of Bato, Leyte, at his office — an introduction, with nothing agreed. The Mayor welcomed the team and was supportive of what iStart is building for the community.
That week the directors were also shown the learning platform the course's online lessons run on. Built in-house by the iStart team, it already runs our own programs every day: lessons and guided practice; tests whose objective items are scored on the server, with the competency verdict set by a human assessor; progress that mentors and admins can see; certificates at the end. Both directors encouraged the team and expressed interest in seeing more courses from us.
What TESDA registration actually means
TESDA — the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority — is the Philippine government's authority over technical-vocational education and training. When a program should count beyond the walls of whoever offers it, TESDA is the body that examines it.
Ours has passed that examination. We filed under Republic Act No. 12063, the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) Framework Act signed into law in 2024, and AI Workplace Operations is now a Recognized TVET Program: the curriculum, the assessments, and our training site in Bato, Leyte were examined against national standards before the registration was granted.
In plain words: this course is no longer just our word that the training is real. The government examined it and placed its recognition beside our name.
One honest thing: registration is recognition, not a job guarantee. No certificate — ours or anyone's — promises employment. What it does give you is training checked by the people whose job is to check.
Inside the course: AI Workplace Operations
The program runs 64 hours: 40 hours of hands-on AI-at-work training plus a 24-hour entrepreneurship module. The AI training centers on five things you will be able to do when you finish:
- Choose and operate AI workplace tools — pick the right tool for the task in front of you, not just the most famous one.
- Produce documents and communications with AI assistance — draft the memo, the report, the client reply, with AI carrying the routine and you carrying the judgment.
- Process and summarize workplace information — turn a pile of raw input into a summary a busy person can act on.
- Verify AI-generated content before it is used or released — the center of gravity of the whole course: nothing AI gives you leaves your hands unchecked.
- Handle data lawfully and responsibly — know what you can and cannot feed into an AI tool, and protect people's information the way Republic Act No. 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, requires.
A capstone closes it: one real AI-assisted work procedure, run from start to finish. The standard behind everything is AI-assisted, human-approved — you stay the accountable decision-maker, and every assessment verdict is made by a qualified human assessor. AI never grades you.
Delivery is blended: theory and guided practice online on iStart's own learning platform, then face-to-face orientation and supervised assessment at our training site in Bato, Leyte. The course is deliberately tool-agnostic — it teaches capabilities, not one app's buttons — so the skills survive the next app update.
The entrepreneurship module is there because not everyone's next step is a job; for some it is a small business at home. Those 24 hours cover personal entrepreneurial competencies, spotting a real opportunity, simple business planning, and starting a small business legitimately in the Philippines.
Why we built this
The entry-level roles this program serves — admin and operations assistants, back-office and service support, junior staff in tech-enabled teams — already have AI inside the daily workflow, and new hires are assumed to work alongside it.
Here is what we keep coming back to: knowing the tool is not what makes a worker valuable — being trusted with it is. The person who verifies before releasing, protects other people's data, and signs their name to the output is the person a team learns to rely on. Those are habits that keep compounding as the tools change, which is why this is a step in a career, not a souvenir.
And wherever you are — finishing a degree or already at your first desk — this course is a next step that builds on your education, never a replacement for it.
What we will do
Where things stand: the first cohort is not yet scheduled — dates, and how to join, will be announced separately once they are real. A second level of iStart courses is in development; nothing beyond AI Workplace Operations is registered.
The registered course is the foundation: what AI is, how to use it responsibly at work, and the habits that let a team trust you with it. The second level, now in development, is meant to take that foundation further — into building real things with AI, for self-employment or a better job.
AI Workplace Operations is the first program we have brought through TESDA registration. We intend it to be the first of more.
What you can do now
While you wait, here is what you can already do:
- Follow this blog and the iStart Facebook page — the first cohort's details will land there first.
- Start noticing which routine tasks at your school or workplace AI already touches — that list is where these skills go to work.
- Practice the habit at the heart of the course: never pass on an AI answer you have not checked yourself.
- Before you paste anything into an AI tool, ask whether it holds someone's personal information.
Thank you
To Provincial Director Engr. Enrico C. Banario and the TESDA Leyte provincial team — and to Ms. Angelica M. Daza, EBET Focal, who guided the registration at every step and came to Bato, Leyte, on Friday, September 4, to see the training site: thank you, and thank you for a welcome that ended the way good Filipino meetings do, with a shared meal at the office table. To Regional Director Dan M. Navarro, DPA, and TESDA Region VIII: thank you for receiving us. To Mayor Bryan Nile A. Gertos of Bato, Leyte: thank you for the welcome and the encouragement. To our partners in Bato, Leyte, and the team that carried this from first draft to signed certificate: this is yours too.
And to you — reading this in a classroom, at an office desk, or at a kitchen table where a business idea will not leave you alone: this was built for exactly the moment you are in. Big dreams start here. This one has the papers to prove it.
Sources
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA): https://www.tesda.gov.ph/ Republic Act No. 12063, Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) Framework Act — LawPhil Project: https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2024/ra_12063_2024.html Republic Act No. 10173, Data Privacy Act of 2012 — LawPhil Project: https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2012/ra_10173_2012.html TESDA Regional and Provincial Office directory (Region VIII and Leyte Provincial Office, Tacloban City): https://www.tesda.gov.ph/Directory/Regions Province of Leyte — Municipal and City Mayors: https://leyteprovince.gov.ph/about-us/administration/municipal-mayors/