THE TECHNICAL Education and Skills Development Authority kicked off a three-day meeting on Extended Reality, which aims to provide more insights in developing the local XR industry.

The Manila Skills Experts’ Meeting on Extended Reality, launched at the Green Sun Hotel in Makati City, will run from April 18-20, 2023. It was organized with the help of the International Labor Organization’s Skills for Prosperity Programme, the International Training Centre of the ILO, the European Training Foundation and the Inter-Agency Council for Development and Competitiveness of Philippine Digital Workforce.

The meeting hopes to gather industry experts and other XR stakeholders and present innovative solutions for skills development, lifelong learning and facilitate detailed discussion among national stakeholders.

Present during the meeting are high-level public policymakers, local lifelong learning-focused authorities, TVET and academia experts, industry representatives and XR technology developers.

TESDA Director General Danilo Cruz said the meeting will also provide a platform for all stakeholders to work multilaterally.

“This meeting specifically supports our ongoing efforts to strengthen skills assessment and certification programs and lifelong learning mechanisms in the country. The learnings from today’s forum will also be very useful, especially in pursuing digitalization, modernization of the Philippine skills development ecosystem, and in strengthening TESDA’s overall institutional capacity,” he said.

“This Manila Skills Experts’ Meeting is indeed very timely as TESDA is geared towards accelerating the development of innovative learning solutions in TVET to address the issue of skills gaps and skills mismatch that continue to exist between what is provided in skills training and what actually the industry demands and requires,” Cruz added.

The three-day activity also includes a one-day “hackathon” for the participants to draw up action-oriented technology solutions to the challenges that will be presented.