To provide critical skills development and increase the employability of graduating Senior High School (SHS) students nationwide, the Department of Education (DepEd) and its partners launched a focused skilling program.
Dubbed “Oplan TAWID (Technology-Assisted Work Immersion Delivery),” the program aims to enhance the digital literacy of learners through various partners.
In particular, the programs strengthen soft skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, and increase employability by linking students to employers for relevant industry immersions.
“This is a great opportunity for our SHS students so they can see what lies ahead of them and to see what awaits them,” Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said in a statement issued Wednesday, Feb. 2.
Briones said that partnerships like these emphasize the “impact we can make for our learners to support them not just in school but after they finished their studies.”
The “Oplan TAWID” was launched together with Microsoft and CloudSwyft.
Meanwhile, DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio explained that one of the “learning delivery objectives is to liberate students from poverty”
To attain this objective, San Antonio said that DepEd integrates technical-vocational courses with work immersion as a curriculum track for SHS students to “bolster their credentials if they decide to work after graduating.”
“Oplan TAWID” follows the successful nationwide implementation of the “Building an Impactful Resume and Online Professional Brand” program where DepEd learners were upskilled on online skilling platforms and over one million LinkedIn profiles were created.
Microsoft Philippines Human Resources Director Grace dela Cruz explained that closing skills gaps is a “critical, shared responsibility” of leaders from both public and private sectors to “ensure inclusive access and future success, whether it be for the workers of today or the workforce of tomorrow.”
“With the right tools and solutions, each and every Filipino student today can be catalysts of positive impact for our nation in the future,” dela Cruz said.
The program will provide training courses on in-demand 21st-century skills, soft skills, digital literacy, and much more with industry partners CloudSwyft and Audentes Technologies. Microsoft is also offering virtual training courses and certification exams towards becoming a Microsoft Office Specialist or taking the Cloud Fundamentals Training Path via Virtual labs powered by CloudSwyft.
CloudSwyft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dann Angelo De Guzman explained that hands-on, practical learning is “critical” to preparing students to thrive in post-education employment.
He noted that CloudSwyft is “proud to support this landmark program by providing its virtual labs platform – allowing students to simulate real-world exercises using advanced, expensive software tools through a virtual environment accessible on any device, anytime, anywhere.”
DepEd said that it will also be partnering with organizations in the country from the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) and finance industries to immerse learners in working for an established company and gain strategic professional experience.
The pilot test of “Oplan TAWID” runs from November 2021 to March 2022 and will later expand to different regions nationwide.