The pandemic taught companies the importance of crisis-proof jobs and the need to repurpose skills.
For this reason, Bayan Academy, a social enterprise with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-accredited programs and funding from global financial services giant J.P. Morgan, aims to produce crisis-proof workers.
Bayan Academy sees the pandemic as an opportunity to expand its reach via its online courses.
“Online training will now become the norm rather than the exception,” says Dr. Eduardo A. Morato, Jr. Chairman and President of Bayan Academy.
“The crisis is not a time to retreat, but to equip ourselves further, retool our way of thinking, and update our skills," he underscored.
During the enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, Bayan Academy intensified its online course offerings, from “Contact Center Services”, “Virtual Assistant” to “Basic Programming”.
Skills that will be developed from these courses were identified as “essential”, with high demand, especially as the economies of the New Normal relies on Artificial Intelligence (AI) -enabled digital technology and automation.
Bayan Academy is currently developing online courses and programs to tackle issues on agriculture so Filipinos to find crisis-proof opportunities and gainful employment in this industry.
Earlier this year, the academy, together with TESDA and J.P. Morgan, presented the “2018-2022 NTESDP (National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan) Action Programming”.
The landmark study is a guide for the “new work skills and jobs training in the Philippines.”
It also seeks to strengthen the standards of Philippine Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to bring about reforms in eight priority industries.
These include: Tourism, IT and Business Process Management, Real Estate and Construction, Agriculture, Manufacturing, Electronics, Health and Wellness, and Transportation, Communication and Logistics.