Six in every 10 workers in the Philippines are employed in elementary occupations and in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors, with skill sets that are mostly composed of social and basic skills, a preliminary report released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.
According to the discussion paper, “Labor Market Structures, Pay Gap, and Skills in the Philippines,” there is a need to investigate the basic education sector and the kinds of school and home environments that can foster gendered differentiated learnings.
“Failure to address the issues in the sector can result in the workforce missing out on reskilling and upskilling opportunities that are widely available online,” the report said.
According to the report authored by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy and Lawrence Dacuycuy, some in-demand jobs in the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) and manufacturing sectors require specific skills bundle that include analytical skills such as systems analysis, systems evaluation, operations analysis, programming and technology and design.
“Hard-to-fill jobs, mostly in health and wellness, manufacturing, construction, banking and finance and IT-BPM, require specific skills. While the average social, basic and management skills in these jobs are like those of in-demand jobs, the analytical skills required are substantially higher than those of the in-demand jobs,” the report said.
“The importance of tertiary education cannot be overemphasized in enhancing the readiness of the country’s future workforce,” it also said.
The report noted the need to assess the quality of jobs being created by the expanding sectors and ensure that reskilling and upskilling programs are in place, both of which facilitate the workers’ upward occupational mobility.
“The world of work is constantly evolving because jobs are created and destroyed, a process that is increasingly becoming conspicuous due to significant technological advances, notably in ICT and computing,” the report said.
“Invariably, poor national skills profiles hurt the economy, impede the efficient and timely accumulation of advanced or highly technical skills, and potentially degrade job mobility and wage growth. Thus, understanding the structure of the labor market in the context of occupational skills is essential,” it added.
