TECH4GOOD
I have talked about this many times before – society that we know today is going to continue changing even at a faster pace than how it was five years ago. Things that we use to see as just sci-fi are now becoming to be reality. Disruptions caused by the exponential rate at which technologies are being developed will bring profound changes to the way we live, relate with one another, and work. Especially work. Job roles are changing every day and so with the skills needed to do the job or new jobs. The next 10 years, I believe, would be very interesting times for workplaces. How will our workforce keep up with these changes?
Two weeks ago, I wrote about keeping a lifelong learning mindset combined with micro-credentials could be the answer to the proverbial jobs-skills mismatch issue. Personally, I do not see having just a college degree will assure graduates of jobs or keeping lifelong careers. I look at higher education institutions as providers of foundational domain knowledge, help students develop their critical thinking and communication skills, teach them how to synthesize information, develop adaptability, and learn how to learn. Beyond college, they will be left at the mercy of the labor market, and, with frontier technologies like AI breathing down their necks, they will have to find ways to continuously reskill and upskill themselves.
It is interesting to note that the government today is continuously looking at many ways to address the issue. The problem is glaring at everyone’s faces and, if not properly attended to, is expected to result in the loss of competitiveness of the Filipino workforce, unemployment, and underemployment. And we all know how important a competitive workforce to our national competitiveness is.
I am following with keen interest the progress of three pending legislations that the House of Representatives has worked on and passed to the Senate for their counterpart work. The first is HB 7370 which would involve the creation of a tripartite council to address unemployment, underemployment, and the jobs skills mismatch in the country. The second, HB 7400, or the Enterprise-Based Education Training (EBET) Program aims to establish competency-based and national enterprise-based training and education systems with industries. It will mandate the creation of EBET committees in each enterprise. Note that all new machinery and equipment used in the EBET Program shall be exempted from customs duties. Finally, HB 7414, or the National Literacy Council Act, renames the Literacy Coordinating Council created under RA 7165 to National Literacy Council. It aims to equip every Filipino with fundamental literacy competency. These pending bills show the seriousness of our government to address the issue.
A recently passed law, RA 11927, or the Philippine Digital Workforce Competitiveness Act of 2022, was signed by President Duterte during the closing days of his term (Disclosure: this author was engaged to facilitate the drafting of the law’s Implementing Rules and Regulations). It aims to develop and ensure the competitiveness of the Philippine digital workforce by taking proactive measures to improve the digital competence of all Filipinos of working age in collaboration with the industry. The measures will involve the provision of basic digital literacy training, upskilling, and reskilling. I see this as very timely because most workplaces today have become digital. This new law would also involve the creation of the Inter-Agency Council for the Development and Competitiveness of the Philippine Digital Workforce.
Talking of councils, we also have the Philippine Qualifications Framework – National Coordinating Council (PQF-NCC) chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Education. It was established to harmonize and promote seamless education in the country. DTI, on its part, is pushing for the development of a Philippine Skills Framework (PSF) that will be used as a basis to upskill, reskill, and increase the competitiveness of the country’s human capital. The initiative also created the PSF Council.
We also see major initiatives being undertaken by the business sector to help address the situation. The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), in collaboration with the Australian Government, has its A Future That Works program which is now in its second year of implementation. It involves the establishment of Sector Skills Councils to give industries the opportunity to upskill the Philippine labor market. One of the organizations I am involved with, the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP) has been named as the Sector Skills Council for analytics and AI. (Another disclosure: The author is the vice president of AAP)
All the above are well-meaning measures to help move the needle as far as addressing the jobs skills mismatch situation in the country is concerned. You may have noticed, however, that most of these involve the creation of councils and, certainly, some level of duplication. It would really help if we finally take a “whole-of-society” approach to realize the objectives. Is there a super coordinating council to coordinate the work of all these coordinating councils?
(The author is the lead convenor of the Alliance for Technology Innovators for the Nation (ATIN), vice president of the Analytics Association of the Philippines, and vice president, UP System Information Technology Foundation. Email: [email protected])