As formal tertiary education is experiencing a crisis because of its historical inability to produce among its graduates the knowledge and skills actually demanded by the real world of business and industry, some highly innovative entrepreneurs engaged in the education sector are introducing new approaches to professional education and are, therefore, attracting a large number of students whose main concern is no longer just getting a college diploma but employability. Some examples of these educational institutions that are growing their enrollment by leaps and bounds are the PHINMA schools (already enrolling more than 180,000 students all over the Archipelago), the National University (NU) system spearheaded by Hans Sy, and the Far Eastern University (FEU) system chaired by top banker Gigi Montinola.

The University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) is not in the same league as these mammoth universities. It is, however, as keenly interested in using its reputation as a leading business school to address the demand of business enterprises today for very specific knowledge and skills. UA&P is constantly honing its relatively small enrollment in the knowledge and skills that can meet the demand of an economy that is already facing the so-called Industrial Revolution 4.0 (Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Robotics, Data Analytics, etc.), without ignoring the fact that the Philippine economy has still much to do to address the first three industrial revolutions. IR 1.0 had to do with the mechanical revolution of the first industrial revolution that happened first in England from 1790 to 1830. Then there is IR 2.0, the electric revolution in the 19th century with the invention of electricity, followed by the electronics (chips) revolution of the twentieth century (IR 3.0).

Even more serious is the problem that the Philippines has not gone through the required green or agricultural revolution that must precede the industrial revolution for large countries endowed with sufficient natural resources like ours. In fact, the agricultural sector is the Achilles heel of the Philippine economy and represents some 70 percent of the close to 20 million people who fall below the poverty line (about 16% of the total population). That is why, since its very inception, CRC has given top priority to devoting some of its faculty and research resources, more than to offering academic degrees related to agribusiness, to giving guidance and providing vital information to professionals in both the private and government sectors on how to develop its agricultural and fisheries sector through the Center for Food and Agribusiness (CFA). CFA was founded and led for almost forty years by the late Dr. Rolando Dy, one of the best agribusiness economists in the entire country. He was a perfect example of reskilling. He graduated with a Bachelor of Metallurgical Engineering but was able, through work experience and a degree in industrial economics, to become the nation’s foremost expert in agribusiness. Since its inception, the CFA has been upskilling, reskilling, and retooling Philippine managers working in the agribusiness sector. Today, UA&P is devoting much of its faculty and research resources to offer an executive education program for agribusiness entrepreneurs and managers through its Agribusiness Executive Program (AEP). This really is just a variation of the Strategic Business Economics Program (SBEP), our longest-running program at UA&P that has upskilled in the area of business and industry economics (including some foreign managers) more than 1,000 top executives.

By 2022, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, UA&P went full circle. It expanded the original upskilling and reskilling program of the original CRC in 1969 when it offered the Industrial Economics Program (IEP) in its original site in Jorge Bocobo St. in Malate, Manila. It launched the Continuing Real World Education (CORE) as a platform that provides curated, relevant, and responsive programs to address the needs of organizations, especially in business, for upskilling, reskilling, and retooling their human resources. CORE is a response to the rapid changes in the business landscape, especially in what we referred to as the Industrial Revolution 4.0. It partners closely with business enterprises so that they can keep up with the evolving demands of executive education. The mission of CORE is to help top executives transform themselves and the rest of their human capital into relevant, morally responsible, and valuable assets of their respective organizations and institutions.

In order to cater to the specific needs of each sector and institution, the initial offerings of CORE are the following programs (to be delivered by UA&P’s full-time faculty in cooperation with outside experts in the different disciplines and specializations):

-Customized executive and management development programs -General management courses related to effective communication and leadership programs, media management, project and middle management training -Benchmarked and relevant governance programs and certifications, data governance and data protection officer courses, applied sustainability management -Succession programs promoting unity in the family and the family business -Certificate programs on strategic business economics and agribusiness -Church management seminar -Graduate management course

In addition to these upskilling and reskilling programs open to the public, CORE offers in-house programs to individual enterprises such as East West Bank, MORE Power, TELUS, and Fast Logistics. There are also industry associations that contract CORE to offer their member companies specialized training programs to update managers on the more recent technological trends. For example, CORE launched the Diploma Program in Supply Chain Management (DPSCM) with the Philippine Institute of Supply Management with the Foundation of the Society of Fellows in Supply Management. DPSCM aims to thoroughly enhance the participant’s competency as a manager by teaching them the facets of supply management. The end-to-end coverage from Demand and Replenishment, Procurement, Customer Service to Distribution, including management skills, renders the Program holistic.

UA&P intends to make more use of its teaching and research forces to design management courses for individual companies, following the outstanding example of its partner European business school, the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. As regularly reported by the Financial Times, the Economist, and other international publications, IESE consistently ranks in the top ten in the quality of various management development programs like the MBA, Advanced Management Program, and Executive MBA. It is, however, always Number One in customized, in-house management development programs. It is our vision at UA&P to be the best, not only in the Philippines but in at least the Southeast Asian region, in the delivery of in-house, customized upskilling and reskilling programs for large and medium-sized businesses. To be continued.