DOLE Addresses Employment, Skills Issues in ASEAN Region

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), together with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) held on October 11 and 12 an international policy forum to discuss how best to promote sustainable and inclusive skills policies in the Philippines and the ASEAN region, according to the news release sent by DOLE-7 Regional Communication Officer Luchelle Taniza.

Through OECD’s Southeast Asia Regional Policy Network on Education and Skills Network and GIZ’s Regional Cooperation Programme to Improve the Training of TVET Personnel (RECOTVET), the forum tackled issues on the private sector’s role in skills development and employment.

Around 70 participants from 12 countries and organizations from OECD and ASEAN member states, international organizations, key stakeholders from the TVET portfolio, national and local government, industry groups, and academia attended the forum.

The forum presented topics and research on mapping of skilled workers and employers that are geared towards effective skills policies formulation and implementation.

According to OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme head Dr. Sylvain Giguère, the OECD has been “steadfast in its aim to improve people’s quality of life, to achieve economic growth, sustainability, and to strengthen economic relations among nations.”

Giguère added that Southeast Asian economies have achieved impressive growth over the last decade.

“The challenge now is to move them into the 4th industrial revolution through effective employment and skills strategies. With these objectives, the OECD- has been persistent in networking skills and labor agencies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and OECD member states since 2008,” he said.

The forum’s co-organiser, GIZ’s regional programme RECOTVET, aims to support quality improvement and regional harmonisation of education and training of TVET personnel in South East Asia.

Dr. Nils Geissler, head of the RECOTVET programme, pointed out that there is a growing willingness from the private sector to engage and contribute to the development of TVET systems in the region.

“We should seize this great opportunity and push forward close collaborations, while acknowledging their crucial role in enhancing employability skills and reducing the mismatch between the supply and demand of skilled labour,” Geissler said.

The population growth in the Southeast Asia region poses a major challenge in global economic growth and sustainability with the influx of workers in the labor market.

With the participation of both public and private sectors, and effective governance mechanisms, the quality of education and skills training of personnel across nations will be further optimized. (rmn/jsme/PIA7-Cebu/DOLE-7)