New technologies have emerged since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020, some of which were already with us in the days before the public health emergency but were given the big push by reason of necessity.
We can cite the system of online economy as among these innovations, where more and more Filipinos had to learn how to use online buying and selling, transfer of funds, etc. because of the intermittent lockdowns.
It is good that international lenders such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have realized the nation's direction to upgrade and modernize the Philippines’ technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system to make it more responsive to new labor demands.
In a statement, the Manila-based multilateral institution said it approved a $100-million loan to fund the “Supporting Innovation in the Philippine Technical and Vocational Education and Training System Project.”
Under the project, ADB will help in improving training facilities and equipment in 17 selected technology institutions across the country to transform them into industry-responsive innovation centers.
“It will also assist in designing new training courses, reskilling and upskilling of trainers, and strengthening the institutional capacity of the government’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA),” ADB said.
This goal will be best served by labor training programs like this TESDA-ADB initiative through reforms in TVET which have become more urgent in order to raise the skills and employability of the trainee-workers.
One major reform area under the government’s National Employment Recovery Strategy 2021–2022 is to strengthen the link between skills training and employment.
The new project will support TESDA in forging partnerships among the 17 selected technology institutions and industry associations, local government units, education institutions, and nongovernment organizations active in training and curriculum, as well as livelihood development.
Regional TVET innovation centers that will offer higher national certificate level courses and programs will be created under the project. These innovation centers and technology institutions will focus on the economic needs and labor demands of their respective provinces and priority sectors as listed in the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan 2018–2022.
The project builds on the government’s work on revamping public employment service offices, which were supported by the ADB-financed Facilitating Youth School-to-Work Transition Program. It also complements a policy-based Post-Covid-19 Business and Employment Recovery Program being prepared for ADB funding.
Sameer Khatiwada, ADB senior public management economist, said industries have become increasingly globalized and are now driven by technological innovations and the rising knowledge economy amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“Automation and digitization, which have been underway even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, are being accelerated by the pandemic shock and are raising the demand in the labor market for new expertise, such as digital and cognitive skills,” Khatiwada said.
As the economy opens up to investors and reforms are being put in place to hasten recovery, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. is banking on a more robust local manufacturing sector to be one of the active drivers of growth.