Solons okay measure addressing job-skills mismatch woe
MATCHING education and skills to available job opportunities is the key to lower the number of Filipinos who have no jobs.
This is the main purpose of House Bill 7370, which was already approved on third and final reading in the House of Representatives.
The measure or “An Act creating a tripartite council to address unemployment, underemployment and the job-skills mismatch problem in the country, and appropriating funds therefor” got 277 affirmative votes and three negative.
The bill is intended to benefit a lot of unemployed workers, college graduates, and students as the proposed council is tasked to help them match their skills and education with jobs currently available as well as future employment opportunities.
Among the main objectives of the measure is to “ensure the relevance and adequacy of academic courses in the higher education curriculum and training programs offered in technical-vocational institutions in relation to the needs and requirements of the business and industry sectors and the overall human resource requirement of the country pursuant to its economic development goals.”
The envisioned tripartite council “shall be a coordinating body among the government, academe, and industry sectors to primarily monitor economic trends in the global and domestic markets, including those pertaining to business and commerce and the local market, and to generate information relative to employment, unemployment, underemployment, and job-skills mismatch.”
The government shall be represented in the council by a commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), a deputy director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), an education undersecretary, a labor and employment undersecretary and an undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry.
On the other hand, the academe will be represented by presidents of the federations of public and private colleges and universities, public and private technical-vocational schools, and accreditation bodies of higher and technical-vocational educational institutions, including the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, Association of Local Colleges and Universities, Coordinating Council of Private Educational Institutions, Technical-Vocational Schools and Associations of the Philippines, National Network of Quality Assurance Agencies, and Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines.
