SBN 2569, AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TRIPARTITE COUNCIL TO ADDRESS UNEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND JOB-SKILLS MISMATCH
Mr. President, Honorable Colleagues of this august Chamber:
As Chairperson of the Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, I rise to sponsor Committee Report No. 207, which recommends the approval of Senate Bill No. 2569, entitled “An Act Establishing a Tripartite Council to Address Unemployment, Underemployment and Job-Skills Mismatch, and Appropriating Funds Therefor”, in substitution of Senate Bill No. 2333 filed by Senator Mark Villar.
Mr. President:
While the jobless rate sank to a historic low of 3.1 percent in December last year, the report did not, however, capture the quality of work, or if jobs were what workers academically trained for.
If we take a deep dive into unemployment figures, we will find out that about 1 in 4 are college graduates, and 4 in 10 have attended college or are high school graduates.
This phenomenon is not new. Youth unemployment has been a bane the government has been trying to overcome.
Another is “youth misemployment” where college graduates, take up jobs too far unrelated to what they have studied for.
There are many factors that lead to job-skills mismatch. It has no single culprit but is a confluence of many. One is how technologies change fast, that what is current during a student’s freshman year will be ancient history by the time he graduates.
Yet despite the surfeit of college graduates, there is a shortage of job applicants in many sectors. Companies are having a hard time filling posts with candidates armed with the right skills. And many graduates are unable to land jobs aligned with their college degrees.
In the end, they land in jobs they have no college training in, or worse, jobs that require no college whatsoever.
What happens then is a great waste of talent and waste of national resources.
Solving the disconnect between education and employment should not be left to the government alone. All stakeholders must be invited on board, as equal partners, and not as default implementors of programs they have had no hand in conceptualizing.
Thus, Senate Bill No. 2569 proposes the creation of a business-government-schools tripartite council to address unemployment, underemployment, and job-skills mismatch.
The mission of this council is the sustained development of a skilled citizenry consisting of Filipino scientists, entrepreneurs, professionals, managers, high-level technical manpower, and skilled workers and craftsmen in all fields.
Sino po ang mag-uupo sa konsehong ito?
From the government, representatives of CHED, TESDA, DepEd, DOLE, DOST, DTI, CSC, and PRC shall sit in the council.
The representatives of the academe shall be composed of the presidents of the federations of public and private HEIs, public and private TVIs, and accreditation bodies of higher and technical-vocational educational institutions.
The representatives of the industry sector shall come from 9 associations.
The Council shall be chaired by a CHED Commissioner, and as deputy, the Deputy Director-General of the TESDA.
Foremost among the tripartite council’s functions is the “formulation of short-term and long-term policies, plans and programs that shall address job-skills mismatch, unemployment, and underemployment.”
To do this it will have to “monitor the trends in the domestic and international labor market vis-à-vis the incidence of unemployment, underemployment and the job-skills mismatch in the country.”
It will also “conduct an inventory of job specifications and skills requirement of various industries.”
Also to be inventoried, reviewed, and evaluated are courses, academic programs, and curricula of public and private HEIs and technical education and training programs of TVIs
It will take a look into the jobs-skills mismatch from the prism of global developments as well, if, for example, the skills and competencies of Filipino graduates meet international standards such as ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework.
Mr. President, let us pass this bill.