The Department of Education (DepEd) has partnered with over 170 institutions from various sectors to further strengthen the employability of Senior High School (SHS) graduates.
This comes as the agency conducted high-level discussions with industry leaders through the DepEd-Industry Dialogue on Global Competitiveness, Innovation, and Preparing Senior High School Learners for the Jobs of the Future on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara said this move helps them meet industry demands by implementing an improved SHS curriculum.
This is still in line with the directives of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to ensure quality education and global competitiveness among the Filipino workforce.
“Our graduates must enter the workforce with genuine hands-on experience and real competencies. By sitting down directly with our industry leaders, we are ensuring that what we teach in school matches what the real world actually demands,” Angara said.
In particular, sector representatives stressed the need to adjust with the rapid technological disruption.
This means entry-level requirements are shifting to “complex decision-making, critical thinking, and advanced digital capability.”
Industry leaders also stressed the need to embed “strict workplace safety standards, essential soft skills, and ethical values into early career training” to allow SHS graduates to succeed in highly-demanding work environments.
For his part, Angara said these changing trends will be addressed through enhanced curriculum and expanded work immersion opportunities.
“We are refining our curriculum and expanding our Enhanced Work Immersion Program because our learners deserve real pathways to quality jobs, entrepreneurship, and higher learning. We cannot build a future-ready economy with yesterday’s skills framework,” he said.
Industry partners then backed the education’s chief efforts for work immersion, with significant commitments for slots for SHS learners.
As of Tuesday, more than 60 percent, or 31,000 out of the 50,000 target work immersion slots, have already been pledged by partner associations.
This covers 1,100 job roles across various fields.
Overall, dialogues covered efforts to ensure alignment between the Strengthened Senior High School (SSHS) Curriculum and Work Immersion Program, considering emerging workforce trends worldwide.
Among the fields are manufacturing, semiconductors, IT-BPM, creative industries, healthcare, construction, automotive, energy, logistics, agribusiness, financial services and tourism.
To date, the DepEd is streamlining the SHS framework from four tracks into two, which include Academic and Technical-Professional (TechPro).
This approach grants learners subject flexibility alongside intensive and industry-guided work opportunities.
Under TechPro, learners can access structured work immersions, joint training plans, hands-on mentoring and industry assessments tied to national skills certifications.
This also allows the alignment of the Philippine Qualifications Framework with industry skills standards, which help fill roles for technicians, technologists and associate professionals. (PNA)
