An organization representing marginalized and underrepresented peasants and their cooperatives is pushing for the creation of the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Agriculture, which can develop skills and education systems for competitiveness of the sector.
Party-list Rep. Anthony Bravo of Coop-Natco said the Council will be a tripartite body, wherein policy-makers, education system and industry will work together to boost the agriculture sector.
“New opportunities to benefit the agriculture stakeholders will be initiated through the
SSC,” he said.
The agriculture sector is one of the pillars of the Philippine economy, contributing 10 percent to GDP in 2014. It employs one-third of the labor force, or roughly 11 million Filipinos.
Bravo hoped that the linkage between the industry, academe and government will be further enhanced through the SSC.
He noted that the efforts to establish the SSC for agriculture are in its initial stage.
Bravo said he has partnered with the British Council to conduct a series of consultative dialogues with the agriculture sector, government and academe with the end goal of establishing the council.
“Through the dialogues, we wanted to engage the stakeholders into playing a more active role in developing skills and education systems for competitiveness, work-force development and strengthening of the agriculture sector,” he said.
Bravo said they already conducted two consultative dialogues held in Luzon and the Visayas, which developed strategic policy recommendations on identified key issues affecting the sector. Another one is planned to be conducted in Mindanao.
He noted that stakeholders deemed imperative to continue developing faculty into the higher level of industry through immersion, partnerships and linkages in a bid to develop skills for high-level manufacturing industry.
Bravo said institutionalizing agriculture learning in basic education can improve collaboration between education, government institutions and employers.
“Hopefully, the initiatives that will be taken by the SSC in the future will contribute to the development of agriculture and enhancing competitiveness,” he added.
Philexport News & Features