PASIG CITY, September 21, 2018 – As part of the Philippine Qualifications Framework-National Coordinating Council (PQF-NCC), the Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday spearheaded the National Capital Region (NCR) leg of the nationwide public consultation on the draft PQF Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), held at the Unilab-Bayanihan Center in Pasig City.

Officials and representatives from DepEd, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), which form the PQF-NCC, as well as stakeholders, gathered to review and discuss the draft IRR of Republic Act (RA) 10968, otherwise known as the PQF Act.

Better opportunities
The RA mandates the PQF to adopt national standards and levels of learning outcomes of education; support the development and maintenance of pathways and equivalencies that enable access to qualifications, and assist individuals to move easily and readily between the different education and training sectors, and between these sectors and the labor market; and align domestic qualification standards with international qualifications framework.

“As may be gleaned from the Act, the PQF is a system whereby qualifications attained through education, training, work, and other sources of lifelong learning, are recognized and assigned specific qualification levels described in terms of knowledge, skills and values, application, and degree of independence,” DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones, chair of the PQF-NCC, shared.

The Education chief also underscored how the PQF will lead to better opportunities to Filipinos as it provides predictability and quality assurance of qualifications: “It will facilitate recognition of skills and competencies acquired not only from formal education and training, but also from non-formal and informal settings as well, thereby increasing their value. With sufficient industry linkages, the PQF can facilitate the matching of education and skills to job requirements.”

Generating awareness
DepEd Undersecretary and Chief-of-Staff Nepomuceno Malaluan delivered a synthesis of the discussions, and presented ways forward including the consolidation and finalization of the draft IRR, taking into consideration the inputs from the earlier legs of the national consultation – Luzon led by DOLE and PRC, Visayas led by CHED, and Mindanao led by TESDA.

Briones likewise called for generating greater public awareness of the PQF: “This means we need to have better communication strategies, products, and approaches to popularize PQF concepts and gain public traction. We should take advantage of the PQF IRR processes to facilitate the information drive.”

Also present in the consultation were representatives from the academe and non-profit sectors including Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), Magna Anima Teachers’ College, Action for Economic Reforms (AER), the Asia Foundation, Public Service Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), among others.

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