Press Release - Villanueva: Enhancing Enterprise-based Education and Training key to addressing job-skills mismatch

Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, on Tuesday, sponsored a measure which seeks to comprehensively address the problem of job-skills mismatch and employability of Filipino workforce by harnessing private sector training initiatives.

Senate Bill No. ___ otherwise known as the "Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act" is the accompanying measure to the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act which was enacted into law last September 2023. The bill aims to enhance and provide a framework for bridging all enterprise-based education and training modalities, including existing programs on apprenticeship, learnership and Dual Training System (DTS).

"Kasabay ng ating mga inisyatibo upang lumikha ng dekalidad na trabaho, mahalaga pong tugunan ang pangangailangan ng kakayahan na tugma o akma sa mabilis na pagbabago ng teknolohiya sa produksyon sa bansa," Villanueva said in his sponsorship speech.

Villanueva, the former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief, noted the prevalence of job-skills mismatch contributes to the country's unemployment and underemployment rate, which is at 4.3% and 12.3% respectively, based on the 2023 preliminary report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

"Hindi po bago ang konsepto ng enterprise-based training. Base sa mga datos na ating nakalap at sa karanasan, basta't ginawa ang pagsasanay sa loob ng mga pagawaan o sa loob mismo ng kumpanya garantisadong akma ang skills sa trabaho," he said.

Based on the 2020 and 2021 Studies on the Employment of Techvoc graduates, enterprise-based training modes In-Company Training and Learnership have the highest employment rates over other forms of training, ranging from 86.26% to 91.14%.

The Majority Leader noted that there have been successes in some industries when it comes to EBET which can be replicated in other industries.

"Katulad nalang po ng training program na isinagawa ng TESDA at ng Semi-Conductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines (SEIPI), halos lahat ng mga trainees o 97% ay nabigyan ng trabaho. Ang training program naman ng TESDA at ng IT-Business Process Management (IT-BPM), umabot sa 70.7% ang agad nabigyan ng trabaho," he added.

Under the