ADVOCACY group Philippine Business for Education and Citi Foundation reaffirmed their commitment to train the youth for jobs of the future through the JobsNext Program.

To equip the youth with skills and competencies needed in the future economy, PBEd is engaging local government units to pilot the JobsNext project.

The project aims to provide industry-relevant, demand-driven, up-to-date and appropriate skilling programs for 1,000 young individuals.

They will be trained for future skills needed in areas such as data analytics and Artificial Intelligence, engineering, cloud computing and content production.

“The JobsNext program brings together government, academia, and the private sector to help the Filipino youth, particularly those in the services sector and those holding informal jobs, who were amongst the most impacted by the pandemic. The reskilling and upskilling initiative that we endeavor to provide through the JobsNext program would help narrow the skills gap, and also contribute to the development of a competent and resilient workforce,” said Aftab Ahmed, CEO of Citi Philippines.

“Currently, the priority of the economic managers is to accelerate post-pandemic recovery and development. Part of this should be investing in our country’s greatest resource – our human capital. It is high time that we prioritize future skills training for our youth, the very people who will build our path towards economic growth,” said Justine Raagas, PBEd Director for Workforce Development.

A Labor Market Intelligence Report for the analytics sector commissioned by PBEd found that there have been high levels of underutilization and mismatch rates in emerging sectors like Data Analytics, which cuts across different industries.

Skills needed in analytics roles were most underutilized in the healthcare industry with 33 percent underutilization rate. High skills mismatch rates were also observed in the agriculture (70 percent), IT-BPM (56 percent), and manufacturing (50 percent) industries.

The same report also showed that interest and demand for analytics jobs are on the rise and are expected to still grow in the next few years.

However, since there is a need for more specialized courses and analytics teachers to produce competent analytics workers, the supply of labor professionals remains a problem.

JobsNext also includes a governance and implementing framework that other local government units can replicate to future-proof their local workforce. Passage of the JobsNext Bill is also being sought in Congress to implement the program on a national scale and ensure the protection of Filipino workers and industries from impending job loss and skills shortage.