Brion: Education and training key to labor competitiveness

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion underscored Wednesday the importance of education and training in improving the Filipino workers’ level of competitiveness in the global arena. “The reality is that there are plenty of jobs waiting to be filled up by qualified workers," Brion said at the 2007 National Human Resource Conference at the Manila Hotel. The labor chief cited the long-held observation that thousands, or even millions, of jobseekers fail to get employed because of a mismatch between jobs available and the applicants’ skills and training. “Some critical skills are either missing, or need to be improved on among jobseekers," he said. Labor Undersecretary Romeo Lagman echoed Brion’s statement, saying the country needs to improve access to higher education and upgrade the quality of graduates to enable them to compete in a fast-changing global economy. Brion said some nine million jobs, including five million overseas, would be available to Filipinos in the next four years. These positions could be filled up, he said, if the country improves the quality of its manpower stock. “What we found out is that there are sectors that are in need of workers who possess the critical skills required by the respective industries. Given an ensured supply of employed-ready individuals, some four million job vacancies can be filled in the country between 2006 and 2010," Brion said. “We also found out that for the same period, more than five million jobs are available overseas," he added. Brion blamed negative publicity and social discourse for making people “believe that there are no more jobs in the country." According to him, the labor department has identified nine “hard-to-fill" jobs where all stakeholders can work together to improve employment generation and productivity. These are cyber services, mining, health services, hotels and restaurants, agri-business, medical tourism, creative industries, aviation, and overseas employment. Brion said that while the country’s human capital is “our single biggest competitive edge," Filipinos lag behind other nationalities in terms of competitiveness. “It is very disheartening to note that we are presently lagging behind many nations in the global competitive race. But we are happy to learn that still we are not far behind when it comes to our human resources. We are not content on merely generating jobs. We want the Philippines to be known in the world as the Center for Workforce Excellence in selected fields," he declared. It was at this point when Brion stressed the need for stakeholders to focus on critical areas such as education and training, labor relations, and human relations in the workplace. As of January this year, the country’s labor force is estimated at 36.4 million and the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent. More than half or 50.6 percent of these workers are found in the services sector while agriculture comes second with 34.7 percent followed by industry with 14.8 percent, according to labor statistics. - GMANews.TV