The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) have forged a partnership to enhance knowledge on digital economy and expose learners to opportunities in the information technology industry.
Led by DepEd secretary Sonny Angara and BOI chairman and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) secretary Alfredo Pascual, the agencies signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) designed to create awareness and interest among the youth about the industrial sector, particularly in the IT industry.
The “Kids for the Future of Philippine Industrialization” is the flagship program under the agreement which aims to develop both technical and soft skills of learners, and focuses on IT segments like animation, game development, and software development
“Philippines has not been the fastest adopter of innovation and technologies but we are there, dahil bilib ako sa talent, palagay ko baka malampasan pa natin ‘yong ibang mga karatig bansa natin sa darating na mga taon,” Angara noted.
“Nandodoon po ‘yong communication skills [and] critical skills. Kailangan lang mahasa nang husto, mahasa nang husto at dito talagang mahahasa kapag nag-work immersion sa mga industriyang makabago,” he added.
The partnership will benefit Junior and Senior High School Learners and K-12 graduates, this also intends to inspire them to pursue career and life-long learning opportunities and to develop a job and future-ready workforce.
In addition, the program will assist educators in enhancing their knowledge of industry trends, technologies, industry skills, and competencies requirements, among others.
Through the agreement, DepEd and BOI will address the growing demands of thriving industries for highly skilled graduates by raising career and industry awareness in secondary education institutions.
Pascual emphasized the K4F-PH program’s pioneering approach to address nurturing job-ready graduates by fostering career and industry awareness among students as early as the basic education level.
Building upon this foundation, the program aims to integrate critical foundational skills into the curriculum and enable students to make informed choices about their academic tracks.
By aligning their educational choices with career aspirations and broader economic growth objectives, students are better prepared for success in key sectors such as information technology and business process management, semiconductors, electronics, and engineering, aerospace, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.
“To maintain this advantage in our rapidly evolving world, we must bridge the growing skills gap, ensuring our education system aligns with the needs of our industries. Hence, the Kids for the Future program is that bridge. It will be our catalyst for synergy, uniting the academe, industry, and government in a shared mission to nurture a world-class workforce,” Pascual said.
Moving forward, the BOI will work closely with DepEd to implement more projects, especially in making more campaigns to direct the students’ interest to courses and degrees related to future industries and obtain competencies towards the future of work or skills.
These may include conduct of career advocacy campaign on semiconductor and electronics to selected top-performing public high schools to address the decline in the number of enrollees in relevant engineering degrees, supporting the BOI’s goal to capacitate 128,000 engineers and technicians by 2028.
They will also organize industry familiarization tours inside animation and game development studios to provide immersive experience for high school students, and promote more investments in the necessary infrastructure, equipment, devices, materials, and services to create a conducive learning ecosystem, thereby, increasing foreign direct investments into the country.