New law signed by Duterte to address job mismatch

By: John Eric Mendoza

President Duterte on Saturday signed a law institutionalizing the Philippine Qualifications Framework that would address job mismatch by appropriating worker’s experience and education with the industries’ standard and demand.

Republic Act 10968 or An Act Institutionalizing the Philippine Qualifications Framework will make qualifications earned here in the country recognizable internationally and enable employers to honor these qualifications.

Senator Joel Villanueva, author and sponsor of the recently enacted law, said that this “landmark legislation” will pave way for meaningful education reforms that would bring wider opportunities.

“We have entered into the realm of global competitiveness and issues of comparability of Filipino skilled workers and professionals working in different parts of the world have made it imperative to institutionalize the PQF. In the ASEAN region, we position ourselves as leader in the field of education and training,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva guaranteed that the enactment of the PQF Law will uphold the commitments of the Philippine Qualifications Framework National Coordinating Council (PQF-NCC) to the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF) Committee. The AQRF serves as a standard for comparisons of education qualifications across participating ASEAN Member States like the Philippines.

Senator Villanueva also announced that on July this year, PQF-NCC will submit a report to ASEAN to mark the relevance and competitiveness of qualifications given to Filipinos. 

Under the law, the PQF-NCC is composed of the heads of the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), and a representative from the economic sector.

“We thank President Rodrigo Duterte, our colleagues in the Senate and counterpart in the House of Representatives for the enactment of this law. However, the PQF is a policy in progress and we need to continue raising awareness about the new law and ensure acceptance by stakeholders to the PQF – the blueprint of success of every Filipino,” Villanueva concluded.