San juan city: Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Secretary Jose Francisco Benitez on Wednesday urged students to consider lifelong learning and to upskill. "Wala pong katapusan ang upskilling, dahil pabago-bago po ang larangan ng trabaho at dumadami at lumalawak ang mga klase ng skills na kailangan nating pagsanayan. (Upskilling never ends. Because the demands and skills needed in jobs are always evolving)," he said during the post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) conference in San Juan City. Benitez said he hoped students would realize that training and the additional skills would also help them land good jobs.

According to Philippines News Agency, technical vocational education (tech-voc) is gradually being embedded in the senior high school curriculum. TESDA is providing assessments to senior high school students so they could get national certificates (NC) II or III. About 175,000 senior high school students got certified in 2024, according to Benitez.

"Malaking bagay po para sa senior high school na sa ngayon. According to the surveys of industry and business, four out of five companies are willing to hire senior high school students kung mayroon ho silang certification ng kanilang skills (This is highly important for senior high schools. According to surveys conducted by industries and businesses, four of five companies are willing to hire senior high school students if they have skills certification)," he said. Providing constant upskilling and reskilling is also among the government's way of addressing skills mismatch, the TESDA chief added.

In his 4th SONA last Monday, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said almost PHP60 billion will be allocated for free education in public colleges as well as tech-voc.