THE Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) called for the establishment of a work force development plan that would help address the so-called education mismatch affecting the labor market as seen in the increasing unemployment and underemployment rates in the country.
As of January 2018, half of the 2.32 million unemployed Filipinos belong to the youth sector; and while 95 percent of the population is employed, 81 percent works for the informal sector.
“When we talk about work force development, we look at the supply and the demand sides—education and training as the supply, and employment as the demand. Hence, it is actually an interrelationship between the supply and the demand,” said Love Basillote, executive director of PBEd. “Many students are not learning and many graduates are unemployed.”
While there is a hike in the investments in education, it does not necessarily equate to relevant learning and work readiness of the people. In fact, many of the students still drop out of the formal education system.
Basillote said this phenomenon is worrisome since educational background has a big bearing for an applicant to be absorbed in the labor market.
Unfortunately, unemployment is still skewed to the educated, he added, while noting that the quality of jobs in the market is low and is mostly informal, as many employers are finding difficulty in hiring qualified workers.
Pushing for a work force development plan is very forward thinking, according to him. It is a mix of solutions not just from the supply and demand sections but also from the involvement and inclusion of educators, industries, private sectors, and the government.
“Three elements would make the work force development plan and models effective: The use of the labor market intelligence, industry involvement and the strong presence of government-industry-academe councils,” said Basillote.
The executive director said that the K to 12 education reform implemented under the current administration actually helps their advocacy in aligning education and employment.
He added that, other initiatives complementing their are the Department of Labor and Employment’s work-based training program, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s enterprise-based trainings.
YouthWorks Philippines, PBEd’s very own work-based training program, was just launched last month. It is now ongoing until 2023.
The executive director said the private sector could help through investing in work-based trainings and seminars for the people to maximize their potentials, skills, knowledge, values and capabilities in an ever-changing workplace.
PBEd also presented low-hanging opportunities that could help with the work force development plan. They include the implementation of the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF); working with the Commission on Higher Education in drafting new memorandum orders (CMOs) for the technical panels and committees; government-industry-academe partnerships in the establishment of various initiatives to help for the cause; and work-based trainings and alternative learning policies.
With these undertakings, Basillote said giving emphasis on learning and ensuring that kids are learning, focusing on high-quality teaching in the country, and enabling the private sectors to participate must be prioritized to address the unemployment and underemployment problems in the Philippines.
“Employers are not the enemy. They are, in fact, partners when it comes to education and training. We need to come together to ensure the alignment of education to employment,” Basillote said.