Strengthening Mindanao’s Skilled Human Resources (1st of 2 parts)

Just recently, I was invited by the Western Mindanao Technical Vocational Schools Association to talk about the status of the Mindanao technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Zamboanga City The event has allowed me to bring to the fore the real issues and the prevailing situation of the institutions that are responsible for the skills training of the human resource sector.

Let us consider the fact that the national government has been faced with the major challenge of fighting poverty which can only be fought in an intensified way if more jobs are created to sustain the economic activities and improve the lives of both the rural and urban poor.

Because of this, the TVET industry is faced with a the difficult challenge of ensuring that skills meet industry demands that will make our manpower competitive both in the local and international labor markets.

To start with, let us look at the status of human resources in Mindanao based on data from government agencies.

Profile of Mindanao’s human resources

Mindanao has a total labor force of 8,435,878 as of April 2005, majority are from Region X. Surprisingly, Mindanao’s employment rate of 91.7% is even higher than the national average of 87.1%26% of the country’s employed persons are in Mindanao.

26% of the country’s employed persons are in Mindanao.

ARMM region where you find most of Mindanao’s poor has the lowest employment rate at 7.2%.

51% of the total Mindanaoans are employed in the agricultural sector.

Literacy level

Functional literacy is a higher level of literacy which includes not only reading and writing skills but also numerical and comprehension skills. Mindanao is lowest in simple and functional literacy compared to other island groups.

Full attention must therefore be given to our growing population to improve our literacy rates. The increasing number of illiterates reflects the inability of basic education to answer to the needs of the growing population. Education is still the main source of basic skills. The impact therefore of literacy on the lives of learners in terms of improved family life cannot be discounted.

TVET Profile

One aspect that we should also look into is the profile of our TVET considering that these are the sources of the human resources more so when so many of our workers have continuously leave for abroad and overseas seeking for greener pastures. It is unfortunate that majority of our Highschool graduates are all looking for course options that will facilitate their employment to foreign countries

Our TVET institutions in Mindanao have been increasing their output during the last few years . There are over 500 providers of technical skills now and 62% are private institutions, while the rest are government-run centers. Among the other providers are higher education institutions (HEIs), industry-based training centers, non-government organization-based training centers, local government unit-based training centers and TESDA supervised schools and training centers.

These institutions have registered and complied with government implemented standards through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the agency that regulates them. Complying with the set of standards are mandatory considering that the government wants to assure that the quality of our workers meet the standards set not only by local employers but also by the international markets.

With this in Mindanao, the Mindanao TVET Association, which is the strongest and the biggest technical vocationl schools organization is gearing its institutional focus to expanding and strengthening private technical and vocational institutions through technical capacity building, which is deemed necessary to provide the skills requirement demands of the industries and directed towards critical areas where impact is expected.

Based on the data for 2006, TVET institutions had a total enrolment of 718,576 seats just in Mindanao, from just about 477,667 in 2001, or a 54% increase, an indication that they have earned recognition that these institutions have continuously rendered the skills called for by both the global and domestic market.

(Joji Ilagan Bian is a strong and respected advocate for the development of the island. She is Chair of Joji Ilagan Career Center Foundation (www.jojiilagancareercenter.com); Phil. Call Centers Alliance, Mindanao Tech Voc Schools Association; Mindanao Rep, Export Development Council. Email comments jojibian2@yahoo.com )