YouthWorks PH has expanded collaboration with the private sector with ₱42.9-million worth of training opportunities.
Launched in 2018, YouthWorks PH is a P1.7-billion workforce development project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd).
It aims “to make education and training more responsive to the needs of the economy” by working with the government, industry, and academe to provide opportunities to youth, not in education, employment, or training.
With this development, more than 3,100 unemployed, out-of-school Filipino youths will receive support in the form of free skills training in construction, services, and hospitality, and for the first time in the automotive servicing and marketing sector in the Greater Manila Area and Cagayan de Oro.
This as the USAID, PBEd, and eight partner companies collaborated through the multi-million agreement in forwarding the workforce development advocacy of YouthWorks PH.
“This partnership launch will build on YouthWorks PH’s existing suite of skills training resources in pandemic resilient industries. Importantly, the partnerships we are forging today will also fill gaps in vital and growing sectors, like in automotive servicing and marketing,” said PBEd Board of Trustees Chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr.
PBEd is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 by top CEOs in the country. It is the business community’s response to the need for greater education and economic alignment. Its advocacies include teacher quality improvement and workforce development.
In an online signing last week, USAID new Mission Director Ryan Washburn, PBEd executives, and partners from Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative, Blogapalooza, Greencars Mindanao Corporation, Crossroads Training Institute, Universidad de Manila, Luljetta’s Place, Alrose Group, HOUSE Foundation, and Messy Bessy formalized the collaboration which will create an enabling environment for workforce development where better opportunities for skills training, competency building, and employment will be available to more Filipino youth.
“The opportunities that your companies will provide will help the youth become better individuals,” USAID/Philippines Mission Director Ryan Washburn.
“More importantly, the skills they will learn will develop them into productive employees or entrepreneurs, community change-makers, and leaders who could help steer the country’s economic recovery from the impacts of the pandemic,” he added.
YouthWorks PH, a five-year private sector-led employability program initiated by the USAID and PBEd, has currently reached almost 4,000 unemployed and out-of-school youths and has opened up more than 13,000 training positions in different industries nationwide.