TAGAYTAY CITY, Cavite, Sept. 27 (PIA) — In line with the implementation of the Career Guidance Advocacy Program, the Regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment in partnership with the Advocates for Career and Education Support, Inc. (ACESI) recently held the 6thRegional Career Advocacy Congress with the theme “PH 4.0: Preparing for a Digital-Ready Workforce” at the Alta D’ Tagaytay here.
Around 200 members of the region’s network of guidance counselors and career advocates, tripartite industry partners, employment service officers and other regional-line agencies gathered to participate and be equipped with the necessary skills and information to educate and train the students- the future workforce.
DOLE IV-A Regional Director Henry John S. Jalbuena formally welcomed the guests and participants in the event.
In giving an overview of the activity’s objective, he reiterated that, “it is necessary for us to continually hone the skills of the students for them to be more employable as they enter the labor force especially on the socio-emotional skills that will be in need such as communication, creative thinking, collaboration, and problem solving.”
Jalbuena pointed out that educators must further innovate on teaching soft-skills rather than prepare the students for jobs that would not exist in the near future.
Special guest speaker Labor and Employment Assistant Secretary Mariano R. Alquiza described the need to produce “future-ready workforce” based on data from the World Economic Forum’s Report on the Future of Jobs. The report said that about 7M jobs will be lost due to automation while the International Labor Organization predicts that about half of jobs in five Southeast Asian countries which includes the Philippines are at high risk of being affected by automation.
Mr. Alquiza said that “to produce a future-ready workforce, we must change our approaches towards the holistic development of education and training and our view of learning more generally.”
He further encouraged everyone to continue the great work that has been done relative to the reforms in education, training, and employment and stressed that all having a stake on this, “We must come and work together to be able to minimize the negative effects and harness the benefits of Industry 4.0.”
JobsFit 2022 Labor Market Information Report highlighted that with Industry 4.0, emerging jobs include business process analysts, mobile app developers, search engine optimization analysts, and social media analysts.
Relevant topics tackled included: Gearing up for the Future of Work: Harnessing the Impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; Role of Career Guidance and Employment Coaching in Shaping the Future Workforce; Developing the Future Workforce: The Academe Perspectives; and Mental Health and Socio-Emotional Skills Development in the Digital-Age.
These topics will help the participant stakeholders to be better informed and competent to continuously shape their students on becoming more employable and adaptive to a productive employment.
Quoting Alvin Toffler Mr. Alquiza said, “The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” (Ruel Francisco, PIA-Cavite/with reports from PICAD)