ADB cites need to train youth for technical jobs

Technical and vocational education training (TVET) must be grounded in the Philippines’ sustainable development framework for it to truly contribute to poverty reduction in the country, a book published by the Asian Development Bank said.

In the Manila-based agency’s latest publication titled Skills Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Developing Asia, the ADB said that there is a need to close skills gaps and boost TVET so that economies in the Asia Pacific region, which include the Philippines, would be able to generate sustained and inclusive growth.

“While Asia and the Pacific accounts for almost half of global unemployment, 45 percent of employers in the region face difficulty in finding suitable talent in their markets,” Bindu Lohani, ADB’s Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said.

The ADB said that skills training systems are needed and pressed to create “work-ready” people to increase the number of employed in the region. It added that more jobs and greater inclusiveness will help to reduce poverty, inequality, and exclusion.

“Countries in Asia will not be able to create sufficient employment unless they address the serious skills mismatches that exist in their labor markets,” Lohani said.

The ADB quoted an Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education study of TVET in the Philippines conducted in 2011, and it states that increasing demand from the labor market for individuals with technical and vocational skills has resulted in the TVET pathway being more aggressively promoted.

The study further said that this was equally a response to the demand from the business community to address the mismatch between education provision and the needs of the market.

As a result, the study said that the youth were encouraged to consider TVET as a pathway to greater job opportunities and higher incomes.

“This was not limited to those from poorer backgrounds but was promoted through the introduction of vocational-technical secondary schools and career assessments to evaluate a student’s ability for either professional work or vocational-technical work,” the report said.

However, the study said that while TVET was promoted by the government as one of the strategies needed to improve the economy, in practice, secondary schools continued to provide poor-quality TVET.

“While the government’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) offered quality training TVET programs, the limited number of TESDA centers and service providers at the community level has made these programs inaccessible,” the report said.

“The prerequisite that TESDA students must be high school graduates made such programs even more inaccessible to many Filipinos given that 51 percent of Filipinos are, at most, elementary graduates and almost 30 percent of school-age secondary students drop out of school,” it added.

The study further noted that non-formal and community-based TVET training programs conducted by non-government organizations for marginalized individuals came out to be more innovative and effective as a poverty alleviation strategy.

“Those unable to attend the formally accredited TVET programs, like out-of-school youths and poor women and men, are able to participate because the high school diploma requirement is usually waived,” the report said.

“Furthermore, NGO training programs tend to integrate other elements, such as microfinance support programs that may be linked with institutions both locally and overseas,” it added.

The report however said that the disadvantage of these NGO-led programs is that they are often dependent on funds from overseas aid agencies, which affect their long-term sustainability.

“The study concluded that if TVET is to truly contribute to poverty alleviation in the Philippines, it cannot be seen as a short-term solution to unemployment but should be grounded in the country’s sustainable development framework,” the report said.

“TVET must adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the labor market without focusing solely on the global need for service sector laborers. It must be viewed from a lifelong learning perspective, not just to develop skills to improving income but skills to improve lives,” the study said.

The ADB said that the large informal labor force in Asia is unable to take full advantage of new opportunities in the modern market economy.

“Shifting away from the factory-driven growth model of the past requires a technically adept market-driven labor force able to generate creative, cutting edge ideas and products,” the agency said.

“However, Asia’s training systems are struggling to fill employers’ needs. Even those with graduate degrees are lacking market-ready technical skills to be absorbed into the workforce,” the ADB said.

The ADB publication proposes a re-engineered and modernized TVET system which enhances the employability of workers as well as the sustainability of their livelihoods.

“Developing TVET is a high priority for governments in the Asia Pacific region as they seek to achieve long-term sustainable growth since the continued success of their economic destinies depends on it,” the report said. –ANGELA CELIS, Malaya