Citing an unaddressed problem in the labor sector, Camarines Sur solons Rep. Luigi Villafuerte and Migz Villafuerte are batting for the establishment of a Tripartite Council to fix once and for all the country’s chronic job-skills mismatching.

“Driven by outdated education systems and the rapidly evolving labor market demands, the job-skills mismatch remains a persistent issue in the Philippines,”noted Rep. Luigi, a House duty majority leader who represents the Camarines Sur's 5th district.

“This persistent mismatch between the skill sets and competencies of our college and tech-voc graduates and the kind of jobs that are now in great demand by businesses often lead to unemployment, underemployment, wage inequality and/or low morale of employees in our country,” he said.

Citing a report by the state-run think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), Rep. Luigi said that 39 percent of employed Filipinos are overqualified for their jobs, while 29 percent lack the necessary qualifications for the jobs that they actually want or are applying for.

As a result, Filipinos affected by the job-skills mismatch “often feel frustrated as they look for career opportunities with growth potentials but realize that they lack the necessary technical and digital skills that are now highly sought after", he said.

Rep. Migz, chairman of the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), said that for industries or businesses, this job-skill mismatch dilemma “results in labor shortages, reduced productivity, and diminished competitiveness, considering that employers often struggle to find workers who possess the specific skills and competencies required for evolving job roles in their businesses".

When overall operational efficiency of industries is affected by this mismatch between available employees and the skills that are actually needed by businesses, the second district representative said that “the sorry outcome is that job creation is bridled and economic growth is restrained".

As such, the solon-siblings renewed their push for congressional approval of House Bill (HB) No. 2397, which sought to establish a Tripartite Council to formulate policies and programs to address the job-skills mismatch in the country.

This job-skills mismatch was first flagged by lawmakers nearly three decades ago during the First Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 1) in 1991.

Under HB No. 2397, the proposed Tripartite Council shall serve as the coordinating body among the government, academe and industry sectors to primarily monitor economic trends in the global and domestic markets.

Such global and domestic trends shall include those pertaining to business and commerce and the local labor market, and to generate information relative to employment, unemployment, underemployment, and job-skills mismatch.

The Villafuertes said that in commemoration of Labor Day on May 1, they expressed the hope that the Congress would take up this proposed Tripartite Council when the Legislature reopens on Monday after its two-month summer break.

For the government representatives in this council, HB No. 2397 proposes the inclusion of a commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd); a deputy director-general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA); an undersecretary of the Department of Education (DepEd); an undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE); and an undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

As for the council representatives from the academe, the bill proposes that these shall be the presidents of the federations of public and private higher education institutions (HEIs), public and private technical-vocational institutions (TVIs), and the accreditation bodies of HEIs and TVIs.

These higher public and private institutions comprise the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC); Association of Local Colleges and Universities (ACLU); Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA); Technical-Vocational Schools and Associations of the Philippines (TVSAP); National Network of Quality Assurance Agencies (NNQAA); and the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines (FAAP).

As for industries, the bill proposes that its representatives in the council shall be the presidents of Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP); Makati Business Club (MBC); Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Incorporated (SEIPI); Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IT-BPAP); Philippine Business for Education (PBEd); Management Association of the Philippines (MAP); Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP); and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).

Among the council's tasks are to:

• Monitor the trends in the labor market, both domestic and international, and the incidence of unemployment, underemployment and the job-skills mismatch problem in the country;

• Formulate short-term and long-term policies, plans and programs that shall address job skills mismatch, unemployment, and underemployment;

• Conduct an inventory, review and evaluation of courses, academic programs and curricula of public and private HEIs and training programs implemented by TVIs;

• Conduct an assessment of qualifications, skills and competencies of students and graduates of higher education courses and technical-vocational education and training and benchmark these with national and international standards;

• Conduct an inventory of job specifications and skills requirement of various industries; and

• Recommend to the President of the Philippines, the Congress and other government institutions policy measures that need to be undertaken in addressing the problems of unemployment, underemployment and job-skills mismatch.