Funds for skills training are among the major obstacles to young Filipinos looking for ways to improve their skill sets, according to an economist from the University of Gadjah Mada’s Asean Studies Center.
In an Asian Development Blog, Asean Studies Center Senior Fellow Dio Herdiawan Tobing said the non-affordability of training in the Philippines ranked the highest in the Asean.
Tobing, citing data from a recent study by the Asean Foundation and Google.org, over 1 in 3 Filipino youth said their lack of training was due pricey training opportunities.
“With nearly 70 percent of youth accessing training from private providers with higher fees than government-funded training, Asean governments need to explore possibilities to penetrate the market to safeguard and guarantee inclusive access for youth that have been disproportionately affected during the pandemic,” Tobing said.
“This will help to increase the youth labor force ready to be deployed in the digital economy-based job market once the regional economy bounces back to its peak,” he added.
Tobing said the research highlights that of the 1,080 surveyed underserved youth in the region, 47.8 percent suffer from a lack of skills in functioning basic work software. It also revealed that 72.2 percent have no or low levels of advanced digital skills.
“Along with the priority to accelerate digital skills penetration among the underserved youth in the region, Asean governments should also strengthen social protection schemes by targeting young people as beneficiaries and ensuring that they can learn new skills while balancing and fulfilling their other daily needs,” Tobing said.
In the Philippines, based on the latest Labor Force Survey results, some 428,000 Filipinos aged 15 to 24 years old dropped out of the Labor Force.
This placed the total number of young Pinoys in the work force at 20.139 million as of May 2022 while 7.298 million were in the labor force. New entrants to the labor force reached 999,000 in May.
There were 883,000 young Filipinos who were unemployed while there were 745,000 underemployed among the youth.
In August, the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) said financial constraints and poor internet connection are among the major factors that prevent young Filipinos from going into vocational training.
In a study titled “Who Are the Youth NEET in the Philippines Today?,” a research team led by PIDS President Aniceto C. Orbeta Jr. found that the absence or lack of tuition and allowance is the major constraint to vocational training.
The study found that 47.5 percent of respondents said they had no funds for tuition or allowance to secure technical and vocational training.
Data showed 35.3 percent of respondents said they had no funds for tuition for a vocational course while 34.2 percent said they did not have funds for allowance.
Some 11 percent of respondents said they had housework or caring duties while 10 percent said they were working or were seeking work, preventing them from pursuing technical and vocational training.
Data showed 8.1 percent said they were doing housework; 5.3 percent said they had caring duties; 5.8 percent said they were working; and 5.2 percent said they are looking for work.
However, the data showed 35.6 percent said they had no hindrance in taking up technical or vocational training while 12.6 percent said they lacked information about these programs.
