TESDA sees more of a problem in job matching than job shortage

Applicants matching the right job are a bigger problem than job shortage as more applicants are needed in some of the programs run by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), TESDA said on Tuesday.

The challenge facing the agency was the lack of job applicants in certain sectors, TESDA Deputy Director for Policies and Planning General Rosanna Urdaneta said in a statement.

“Ang daming requirements, pero ayaw ng tao kasi they find it dirty, difficult, and dangerous,” Urdaneta said on the sidelines of the recent “One Step Ahead Forum Manila.”

Organized by Asia Society Philippines and J.P. Morgan Philippines, the forum presented an opportunity for education, labor, and business leaders to discuss and bridge the gap between education systems and labor market needs.

Urdaneta noted that TESDA actually allocated a lot of scholarship fund to the Build, Build, Build program’s key sectors. But because the applicants were few, the agency had to drop those classes.

“For you to have a cost-effective and cost-efficient program, it has to have 20 trainees. Pero minsan 10 lang, so hindi na namin pwede (ituloy) kasi hindi na siya cost-effective,” she said.

TESDA is now planning to work with different stakeholders, identifying the jobs available, having priority areas, and utilizing their two-pronged approach for the Technical-Vocational Education Training (TVET) Program to address the job matching problem, Urdaneta noted.

The Filipino workforce must adapt to the labor market’s demands, with the ongoing digital shift calling for higher skills ongoing digital shift calls for higher skills level and training for Filipino workers, according to TESDA.

The Ayala Corporation institutionalized outcomes based education in their schools and helping the youth as they transition to employment from education.

“These things can be fixed ... all of us can find ways to bring this divide that’s increasing and is happening between the education sector and employment sector more closely together,” Ayala Corporation chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said during the forum. —Joviland Rita/VDS, GMA News