The Manila Times

PSF eyed to upskill, reskill workforce

ED PAOLO SALTING

COMPANIES can utilize the Philippine Skills Framework (PSF) initiative to upskill and reskill their workforce to boost their competitiveness and succeed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe), according to an agency.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution has made the need for reskilling and upskilling a greater imperative than before. The increasing adoption and utilization of digital technologies in industry are expected to redefine tasks, jobs and skills as early as 2025,” said Ma. Fe Avila, chief of the Philippine Trade Training Center-Global MSME Academy Planning and Programming Division, at the Philippine FIRe Skills Week celebration.

Avila said the wide use of digital tools and technologies in performing tasks is also now considered essential as working remotely from home or from sites other than the office becomes more common.

She cited a 2021 McKinsey report, which indicated that over 50 percent of companies have considered reskilling their current workforce, 20 percent of them are looking to hire additional talents, 20 percent are for redeploying workers to new roles and 6 percent are possibly open for outsourcing in the midst of FIRe.

“While this study mostly is on big countries, I think this is also true for the Philippines,” she added.

Avila said the same report found that about 42 percent of companies are saying they are currently experiencing a skills gap, while 44 percent expect the skills gap in their company to occur in the next five years.

“So the skilling initiative that we need to implement for our people, and our workforce should improve both hard and soft skills, as well as competencies that are industry specific and cross-sectoral in application. But regardless of these findings, we will notice that it is about reskilling and upskilling,” she said.

Recently, and in cooperation with other agencies, Avila said the PTTC has completed three sectors specific skills framework for the supply chain logistics, game development and digital arts, and animation in the creative industry.

The PSF contains skills documents and information about the different sectors, emerging trends and employment opportunities. It targets eight priority sectors: logistics and supply chain; information technology-business process management; construction; tourism; food (agriculture and fishery); creative industry; manufacturing; and health and wellness.

Business Times

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2022-07-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281840057365509

The Manila Times