Education, labor to raise bar of training programs

THE key stakeholders in education and labor need to develop training programs to keep pace with technology change, and refocus the existing curriculum to meet the needs of industries.

The alliance for Technical and Vocational Education and Training ( TVET) said vulnerable jobs could be lost from automation and presence of vulnerable industries amid the fourth industrial revolution.

“Promote career paths in agriculture, manufacturing and other traditional sectors by dovetailing with government marketing programs for job creation,” the alliance said.

The group is led by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) national and regional chapters, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (PHILEXPORT), Export Development Council, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.

The group also cited the need to develop the research capability and labor market information to make it at part with standards of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, noting there was a benchmark for in-company trainers’ training.

Republic Act (RA) 11230, or the “Tulong-Trabaho Act” was signed into law in March 2019. Under RA 11230, employed workers who intend to develop and expand their current skills and training can avail of assistance through a fund established to provide free access to TVET programs.

It also aims to address unemployment and jobs mismatch by providing the Filipino labor force with free access to technical-vocational education, instituting the Philippine Labor Force Competencies Competitiveness Program to assess the prevailing requirement of industries.

Eduardo Ong, PCCI education committee chairman, said his organization, PHILEXPORT, ECOP and other groups were all working toward identifying the breadth of jobs likely to be threatened by technological advancement.

“As one country, we should believe in the reality that jobs of the future will be the ones that machines can’t do, and it’s fair to say that anything that can be measured or is based on rules will be automated. This idea, I think, is great news because it means we can automate the work and humanize the jobs,” he said.

Ong added that there was also a need to strengthen collaboration between and among government, academe and industry to discuss the dynamic transformation of the economy into the digital era.