Education and labor experts are pressing once more for a closer linkage between the outputs and outcomes of educational institutions and vocational programs and the skills needed by industry to reduce the significant national occupational skills gap that they warned will hamper economic growth and inclusivity if left unaddressed.
Marife Ballesteros, vice president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, in a recent PIDS forum on skills prioritization and anticipation described as a “pressing concern” the growing disparity between available jobs and workforce preparedness amid a rapidly evolving labor landscape.
“Despite robust growth in the national economy in recent years, we are still confounded by the policy paradox [that] we have too many job openings coexisting with chronically high unemployment and underemployment rates,” she said.
Ballesteros said this raises questions on how well the skills of the workforce align with industry and employer demands.
She noted a PIDS study published in 2022 that revealed that 39% of employed Filipinos are overeducated for their jobs while 29% were undereducated.
“This highlights some inefficiencies in the labor market and the education sector as well.”
The executive added: “The more we examine these trends the clearer it becomes that the skills sets of our workers are not just important in getting employment, they are pillars in nation-building and the foundation for both professional and personal success.”
She said the findings “emphasize the need for stronger alignment between the outputs of educational institutions and vocational programs and the skills being demanded by the industry.”
De La Salle University professor Lawrence Dacuycuy in the same webinar agreed that poor national skills profiles “hurt the economy, impede the efficient and timely accumulation of advanced or highly technical skills, and potentially degrade job mobility and wage growth.”
In his presentation, he called for an examination of the basic education sector and the school and home environments “that can foster gendered differentiated learnings,” noting that failure to address the issues in the sector can result in the workforce missing out on reskilling and upskilling opportunities that are widely available online.
He also observed how important tertiary education is in enhancing the readiness of the country’s future workforce, and said that technical and vocational educational training (TVET) programs should be leveraged to tackle in-demand jobs in some sectors.
At the same time, he highlighted the need to assess the quality of jobs being created by sectors that are expanding due to platforms that offer products such as online shopping and ride-hailing services and to ensure that reskilling and upskilling programs are in place to facilitate workers’ upward occupational mobility.
To address the gender gap, Dacuycuy stressed the need to continue developing programs that encourage women’s labor force participation and address job disruptions resulting from care work.
“Leveraging women’s better educational achievements may help mitigate skills gap in highly technical occupations,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Charlyn Justimbaste, executive director for planning of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), shared that the agency has recently unveiled its “TESDABest” plan, an eight-point agenda that seeks to innovate and transform the TVET system through rationalizing TVET programming, optimizing delivery, and maximizing impact to prepare Filipino workers for the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Presented last September, the eight-point plan that uses the first eight letters of the alphabet for easy recall includes Access to TVET, which aims to expand access to training programs through scholarships and free assessments; Behavior and Mindset Change; which seeks to instill a growth mindset among stakeholders and change public perception of TVET as second-rate education; and Competency Standards and TRs for New and Higher-Level Qualifications, which looks at developing training courses for high-skill jobs.
Also part of the plan are Demand-Driven and Data-Driven TVET on strengthening partnership with industry to align training programs with market needs; Employment Outcomes, which is about enhancing employability of TVET graduates; and Flexible Learning and Facilities, which calls for improving the quality of TVET programs through immersion and appropriate facilities and technology. Global Competitiveness and Good Housekeeping intends to align TVET programs with international standards, while Harmonization with SHS Curriculum, Ladderization with Higher Education, and Lifelong Learning Pathways will enhance the employability of senior high school (SHS) graduates by integrating TVET standards into the SHS curriculum.
For her part, Jeanette Damo, executive director of the Institute of Labor Studies at the Department of Labor and Employment, stressed that the institute emphasizes robust collaborative arrangements with implementation partners to bridge the gap between research and practice.
“Such partnerships not only enhance the relevance of research findings but also ensure that they are actionable and aligned with the real world challenges faced by stakeholders,” stated Damo.
