Firms urged to explore opportunities in tech-voc

MANILA, Philippines — Business-led education advocacy group Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) urged business leaders and industry stakeholders to forge partnerships and explore opportunities in technical-vocational education and training (TVET).

“Reshaping tech-voc and improving its quality means that industry must be more involved,” PBEd president Chito Salazar said at the recent joint general membership meeting of PBed and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).

“For industries, we need to send the right signals on job demand and outlook, including communicating the opportunities available in the tech-voc space. We need to make sure that the right competencies are captured in training programs, and we have to put our skin in the game by being more involved in work-based training,” Salazar said.

PBEd is currently supporting the establishment of sector skills councils within the industry through its A Future that Works program with the support of the Australian government.

The councils oversee the production of labor market intelligence reports and data-driven research to provide timely and relevant information on jobs in demand by specific industries.

To encourage private-sector led work-based training and promote TVET as career choice for the youth, PBEd is also implementing the YouthWorks PH program in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development.

Since 2018, the program has already provided over 15,000 TVET-related work-based training opportunities to unemployed, out-of-school youth. Almost 1,000 youths have since graduated from the program, where 70 percent have been absorbed right after training.

During the meeting, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) general director Danilo Cruz shared that the agency plans to establish Regional TVET Innovation Centers (RTIC) to upgrade technical-vocational education and support workers retraining in light of technological advancements.

These RTICs will serve as innovation hubs, fostering collaboration between industries, agencies, firms, educational bodies, and research institutions while also promoting research and development. The aim is to transition workers at risk from automation into roles requiring more human-intensive skills, aligning with the demands of the 4th industrial revolution.

“Only through mutual learning and a combination of resources from industry, government, and academia can we fully maximize TVET’s role in supporting economic growth and development. We must continue to empower our citizens with high-quality and relevant skills training and do our part in the national skills development effort,” PBEd Chairman Ramon Del Rosario said.

Cruz also emphasized the need for upskilling and reskilling the country’s workforce.

“The adoption of new technologies, globalization, climate change, labor migration, demography, and disruptions that caused the evolving landscape have resulted in job creation, substitution, destruction, and redefinition,”Cruz said.

“Reskilling and upskilling the workforce are more important than ever and the importance of high quality vocational education and training (TVET) cannot be overemphasized,”he said.

Cruz committed to help ensure that the country’s labor force remains employed through guaranteed standards and forward-looking policies to develop human capital equipped with necessary skills to cope with the ever changing Philippine labor market landscape.

“TESDA remains committed to its mandate as the TVET authority to provide relevant, accessible, high quality and efficient technical education and skills development,”he added.