ADB: Universities must get ahead of the curve

The education sector in the Philippines and the rest of Asia is taking on a greater role in addressing unemployment and other labor market issues region-wide via curriculum upgrades, academe-industry collaboration and research.

“Universities are not accustomed to taking responsibility for employability. That stance is rapidly changing, and universities must get ahead of the curve,” the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said in its latest education report, which came out as several higher education institutions have stepped forward to pilot-test new curricula for career-oriented senior high school under the K to 12 reforms.

The University of Makati (UMak), Davao Doctors College, Ateneo de Naga University, Manila Times College, Asia Pacific College and Don Bosco have volunteered to test-drive senior high school implementation options, according to the Department of Education.

These options would implement career tracks in:

•Business and Entrepreneurship;
•Humanities and Social Sciences;
•Science, Technology, and Engineering;
•Sports; and
•Technical-Vocational

The Manila Times College, Asia Pacific College and Don Bosco have formed a consortium through which they share resources, including faculty, on implementing senior high and other courses.

In an interview with GMA News Online, Professor Tomas B. Lopez Jr. said UMak, where he is president, has taken on the role of providing the senior high school component of K to 12 for all of Makati. It has also been retooling its faculty by having them earn competency certifications from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

ADB recommendations

In its “Improving Transitions from School to University to Workplace,” the ADB said higher education institutions “must elevate employability to an issue for students to consider in their first year of study.”

But the regional development bank clarified that “(t)his does not mean that employability should be the first priority of higher education. It said empowering and preparing citizens for a greater role in development and innovation must remain as the main purpose of higher education.”

The report put forward three main recommendations to align education to industry needs and standards:

•Improve the readiness of secondary school graduates for higher learning
•Better align university curricula and instruction with labor market needs
•Improve public–private and cross-border research partnerships

According to the ADB study, Asia’s students “need to be better prepared for the rigors of higher learning, including problem solving and critical thinking needed in math and science studies.”

“The role of education in supporting human resource development is increasingly in the spotlight as more Asian countries move toward middle income status and demand grows for skilled labor to support higher economic growth,” the ADB said.

“Asia’s ability to compete in a globalized world depends on the readiness of students entering university, the employability of graduates in the labor market, and acceleration of innovation, science, and technology for creating new products and services,” said ADB Regional and Sustainable Development Department Education Practice Leader Jouko Sarvi.

Industry-academe collaboration

An on-the-job training course dubbed as Service Management Program (SMP) is one of the ways the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) go about ensuring a supply of new employees competent in computers.

“The goal of the program is to prepare students and help them succeed in the industry,” said Ofelia Montallana-Orcales, head of Learning and Development at Ingram Micro. Orcales, who is a volunteer trainer for the SMP.

“With US$13.4 billion in revenues in 2012 and an impressive compound annual growth rate of 20 percent, the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry is projected to employ 926,000 Filipinos in 2013,” the BPAP said in a statement e-mailed to GMA News Online.

Another growing sub-sector of the BPO industry is healthcare information management (HIM). The BPAP said this field, which is seen to grow annually at 35 percent over the next few years, “offers advancement opportunities for graduates of nursing and allied medical courses.”

HIM industry association chairman Jeff Williams said their personnel’s tasks are “very much in tune with actual hospital work.”

“The work that they do is very clinical in nature. They review X-rays, blood tests, and other medical tests taken from when you are in hospital. We also offer medical outreach programs, where we speak to people over the phone and we give them information and they do guide them,” he said.

According to the ADB, these developments in the modern workplace and education have made middle-income developing economies like the Philippines “shed some of their low-wage industrial labor in favor of more value-added production for the international consumer market.” — KBK, GMA News