Reskilling, upskilling crucial amid pandemic

Businesses need to focus on reskilling and upskilling their people to adapt to changes especially those brought about by the pandemic.

Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), the training arm of the Department of Trade and Industry, is looking at sector development, identifying skills that are in demand, and necessary skills and competencies that can respond to the requirements of the industry.

“We have seen a lot of changes. A lot of changes happened because of the pandemic. A lot of new in-demand skills came out resulting from the development, also resulting from the pandemic, and digital transformation and all these things,” PTTC Executive Director Nelly Nita Dillera said in a news release on Saturday.

She said industry players themselves are involved in the development of training courses or modules.

Rosalina Constantino, executive director at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, said “Tulong Trabaho (Job Assistance)” is the latest addition to the agency’s scholarship programs that seek to reskill and upskill target beneficiaries, including employed workers.

“We have actually revisited the implementing guidelines in order to integrate the new normal arrangements in the implementation of Tulong Trabaho scholarship, and in order to provide additional assistance to affected industries and displaced workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.

Constantino said the coverage of the training program that will be funded under the scholarship program shall include industry-specific and area-based skills requirements proposed by companies, industry groups, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“This allows the private sector to really have a say in determining what are the priority areas that need particular attention when it comes to trade,” she said.

Constantino said the Tulong Trabaho scholarship program can help the MSMEs as target beneficiaries include employed workers who seek skilling, upskilling or reskilling.

It also equips workers with skills in emerging and new industries, and provides them with high-level technical skills, she added.