Maximizing employability thru multi-skilling

Maximizing employability thru multi-skilling | Daily Tribune

The Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) assessed the Philippine education system and found many problems besetting curricula, schools, students and teachers. The second Edcom 2 report released last year mentioned the problem of high school graduates produced by the K-12 program as lacking skills that make them job-ready or employable. The problem was attributed to the misalignment of the senior high school (SHS) curriculum and higher education curricula, meaning strands and tracks do not smoothly lead into appropriate college programs or into specific job skills. As a solution, Edcom 2 recommended that the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) revise and better align SHS and college curricula with identified core competencies for college readiness and employability, and to embed more practical, handson learning, internships, and updated industry skills.

DepEd, CHEd and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) responded mainly by, revising the SHS curriculum, embedding technicalvocational skills across tracks, and strengthening assessment, certification and transitions between Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and college, all aimed at making SHS graduates more “jobready.”

For the Primary Structures Educational Foundation Inc.-School of Knowledge for Industrial Labor, Leadership and Service (PSEFI-SKILLS), the corporate social responsibility arm of Cebu-based construction firm Primary Group of Builders, it introduced a multi-skilling program to reinforce the CHEd-DepEd-TESDA strategy.

PSEFI provides scholarships and skills training to marginalized sectors while SKILLS, the tech-voc school that it runs, offers formal SHS (technical, vocational, livelihood or TVL track) and TESDA-accredited shortterm courses. During the League of Corporate Foundation’s 30th anniversary conference at the Bayanihan Center in Pasig City on 1 July, PSEFI-SKILLS president and COO Paulette Liu shared their innovative program of training scholars with at least three related tech-voc courses so they can have more employment options after graduation.

“When there is no job available for carpentry, for example, at least he has three other opportunities: mason, tile-setter and plumber,” Liu said. “You cannot anymore say unemployed because there is no work.”

Liu said they are sharing the PSEFI-SKILLS program to other provinces beyond Cebu, as well as to other LCF members. She noted its feasibility as skills assessment and certification by TESDA are free with the DepEd already having a budget for these to cover SHS multi-skilling.

For Central Visayas alone, the DepEd budget for assessment covers 20,000 graduates, according to Liu.