MANILA — Education Secretary Leonor Briones said Wednesday it is important to establish clear educational qualifications standards to land quality jobs for Filipinos.
During a meeting on the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 10968 or the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF), Briones said transparent education levels attained through education, training, work, and other sources of lifelong learning increase the chance of Filipinos to get quality work opportunities.
“The law will standardize and make transparent the process of recognizing qualifications, provide for equivalencies and credit transfers, and facilitate flexible learning pathways across education, training and work. It will expand the recognition of qualifications acquired through experience, non-formal instruction and settings,” Briones said.
The present PQF has eight qualification levels, each of which systematically describes qualifications in terms of knowledge, skills and values, application, and degree of independence.
Providing predictability, comparability and quality assurance of qualifications, the PQF will facilitate recognition of skills and competencies acquired outside formal education and training. It can also facilitate the matching of education and skills to job requirements with sufficient industry linkages.
Briones said it is quite difficult to make the PQF more relevant to all Filipinos because the economy has a large informal sector and is characterized by geographic imbalances.
She suggested that maximizing the PQF as a platform for coordination among the government, industry and education (GIE) sectors could be an effective means to improve its relevance.
“This GIE coordination should take up broad concerns, not just to develop the supply side, which is human resources, but also the demand side, which is the development and creation of quality jobs. We can make the PQF system more relevant by making it a platform for institutionalized GIE coordination, working towards coherent strategies in human resource development, employment, industrial policy, and national development,” she added.
The PQF Act, signed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte last Jan. 16, gives sufficient bases for GIE coordination.
Among those who attended the meeting were Labor and Employment Director Dominique Tutay, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta, Higher Education Commissioner Lillian de las Llagas, and Professional Regulation Commission Chairman Teofilo Pilando Jr. (PNA)
