The Philippines will be prioritizing 7 sectors in the Philippines Skills Framework (PSF), an inter-agency initiative to build the skills and competencies of the country’s human capital and better prepare them for the work of the future as 48 percent of current jobs could be displaced by automation and new technologies.
At the virtual launch of the Launch of the Philippine Skills Framework Initiative, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez identified these priority sectors as construction, creatives, food (agriculture and fishery); health and wellness; IT-BPM; logistics and supply chain; manufacturing; and tourism.
Already, the first-ever PSF for the Supply Chain and Logistics Sector was launched Friday, June 25.
This was prepared in collaboration by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
Also contributing here were stakeholders from the local supply chain and logistics industry, with the assistance of consultants from the Singapore Institute of Materials Management, Accelebator, and Thames International Business School.
This involves the development of sector-specific skills frameworks that will guide the country’s workers in enhancing their skills for particular job roles.
Adapting the experience of Singapore through their SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) agency, the PSF will serve as a common reference or language that employers and workers share in order to ensure the match between jobs and skills.
The PSF is important as jobs of the future requires new skills and technologies to accomplish.
For instance, he cited a 2021 McKinsey report that showed around 53 percent of companies consider reskilling their current workforce as the most useful action while 20 percent are looking to hire additional talent. Meanwhile, 20 percent consider redeploying workers to new roles, and 6 percent will possibly opt for outsourcing.
The same report noted that about 43 percent of companies are saying that their companies are currently experiencing skills gap now, while 44 percent expect the skills gap to occur in the next 2-5 years in their companies. Moreover, the business areas with the biggest skills gap are in data analytics (43%), IT and web design (26%), executive management (25%), and HR and talent management (23%).
Also DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba noted that the same report showed that 48 percent of tasks can be automated affecting 18.2 million jobs.
Already, TESDA said they have available 500,000 scholarships for skills training courses for the priority sectors under the PSF program.
Through the PSF, employers will be able to identify the skills and competencies a potential employee must have to be able to effectively fulfill a job role. Companies can also use the framework to design progressive human resource management and talent development plans for their employees.
For their part, job-seekers will be able to define ways forward or upward in a particular industry by specifying the skills and competencies that they would need to acquire in order to advance in their chosen career path.
Furthermore, educational and training institutions can use the skills framework to revise existing curricula or design new courses. This would capacitate workers with the competencies demanded by industry currently and in the future.
What is unique with skills framework is that these equip an individual worker to make an informed decision about his/her career choices as well as take responsibility for his/her own skills development. And because these are industry-informed and validated, the match between jobs and skills is assured.