Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-11jN
TAGUIG CITY – As ASEAN Chair for 2026, the Philippines, through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), led a series of regional engagements under the ASEAN TVET Council (ATC). The work focused on digital transformation, green skills and inclusive access to training and jobs.
(ASEAN is the 11-member States Association of Southeast Asian Nations while TVET is technical-vocational education and training.)
Held under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together”, and the sub-theme “ASEAN: Skilled for the Future,” the series culminated in the High-Level 5th ATC Regional Policy Dialogue on October 21. There, regional leaders brought together recommendations from the year’s dialogues to advance the ATC Work Plan 2021–2030.
The following day, October 22, the ATC Commemorative Event marked the Council’s sixth founding anniversary, and recognized the Philippines as its inaugural Chair (2020–2022). Highlighting the event, ATC Members adopted the Joint Statement of the ASEAN TVET Council. It commits ASEAN Member States to:
• an integrated green, digital and inclusive transformation of TVET;
• women’s economic empowerment through TVET;
• digital and technology-enabled skills development;
• evidence-informed skills governance;
• a just and people-centered transition for workers;
• stronger regional cooperation to turn commitments into results.
At the 6th ATC Meeting that followed, member-States agreed on priorities and follow-through actions, and Viet Nam took over the chairmanship of the Council.
_________
“Behind every regional framework is a learner who wants a better job and a worker who does not want to be left behind.”
— TESDA Secretary Fransisco “Kiko” B. Benitez.
The dialogues started from a simple fact that the jobs in ASEAN are changing faster than ever. This as the first dialogue showed that AI is changing the tasks within jobs more than it is erasing whole occupations. The workers most exposed are women in clerical roles and young people in entry-level jobs. Informal and rural workers are exposed, too, and they are the ones who have had the least access to retraining.
For ordinary workers and learners, the commitments mean recognised short courses for those whose jobs are changing, training matched to new green and digital jobs, more support for women entering technical trades, better on-the-job training, and credentials that employers trust at home and across ASEAN, with particular attention to women, youth and informal and rural workers, who have had the least access to retraining.
“Behind every regional framework is a learner who wants a better job and a worker who does not want to be left behind,” said TESDA Secretary Fransisco “Kiko” B. Benitez.
“Through the ASEAN TVET Council, we have an important platform to turn our shared priorities into concrete actions, so that the benefits of technological and economic transformation translate into better jobs and livelihoods for our people,” added the Secretary.
The first two TVET Technical Policy Dialogues, held on August 26-27 and October 20, focused on AI’s impact on jobs, ethical governance, and mapping competency standards for a green economy. Meanwhile, the Regional Knowledge-Sharing Forum last October 14-15 advocated the widening of TVET access for vulnerable groups, proposing TESDA as a regional hub for women’s empowerment.
The Philippines proposed the ATC during its 2017 ASEAN Chairmanship, and the Council was launched on September 16, 2020. As inaugural Chair, the Philippines helped build the Council’s institutions and shape its Work Plan 2021–2030. (/)