📋 Tender Overview
More innovative and flexible learning programs are needed to respond to the challenges of preserving and creating jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic the National Economic and Development Authority NEDA said following the latest results of the Philippine Statistics Authoritys PSA labor force survey LFS.According to the Philippine Statistics Authority April 2020 Labor Force Survey released on June 5 2020 the unemployment rate rose to 17.7 percent accounting to 7.3 million unemployed Filipinos in the labor force in April 2020. This is a record high in the unemployment rate reflecting the effects of Corona virus disease 2019 COVID-19 economic shutdown to the Philippine labor market. Unemployment rate in January 2020 was 5.3 percent while in April 2019 it was recorded at 5.1 percent.Thus the NEDA Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said that Workers now need to adapt to the changes in business operations brought about by the pandemic as economic activities resume. Online or blended learning programs will now play a key role in providing opportunities for Filipinos who will require retooling and upskilling especially those whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic.Chua cited the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority TESDA Online Program TOP launched in 2012 to serve as an open educational resource that will make technical education more accessible to Filipinos through the use of information and communications technology ICT. Currently the TOP has 70 available online courses under 16 categories.According to the TOP Monitoring Report 564828 users 70 percent of whom are female enrolled during the enhanced community quarantine ECQ period. Meanwhile 62 percent of active users revealed that they registered to the TOP in light of the lockdown. These users expressed that they intend to learn more skills either to secure their jobs or to find new employment.The report also identified tourism 21 percent entrepreneurship 16 percent 21st century skills 14 percent and ICT 10 percent as the most enrolled courses in the TOP.Courses such as utilizing electronic media in facilitating training development of training curriculum blended and facilitating e-learning sessions were developed to address the skills needed in the education sector due to the shift to flexible learning delivery modes.This also according to Chua calls for digital transformation particularly in government offices even as he cited that while this may be difficult it is an important structural reform along with ensuring appropriate policies are in place to encourage private sector participation in improving the countrys information technology structure.As we transition to a new normal where physical contact remains restricted we need to invest in digital transformation. This is an important structural reform that will allow us to continue to provide educational training and other social services and also enable people and businesses to transact with government more safely and easily the NEDA chief said.It will be a difficult process. While the government itself invests in infrastructure we also need to have competition policies that will encourage the private sector to help improve the countrys information technology infrastructure. The challenge is how to bring down the cost while increasing the quality of services Chua added.
