The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Board of Investments (BOI) in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation (JICA) through its Project on “The Elaboration of Industry Promotions Plan Using Value Chain Analysis” is collaborating with the local academe through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) and Jobstreet Philippines on the holding of a Philippine Auto Industry – Academia Congress on September 28, 2018 at the TIP Campus in Quezon City.
The MOA calls for DTI-BOI-JICA Project to forge a stronger linkage between Higher Education Institutions and the automotive industry for the growth of the automotive manufacturing sector in
the Philippines and to ensure that sufficient quality of human resources are available to the industry to further its development.
BOI Executive Director and concurrent BOI-JICA Project Manager Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa and BOI-JICA Consultant Team Leader Masashi Takano along with TIP SVP Angelo Lahoz and Jobstreet Country GM Philip Gioca signed the MOA in a simple ceremony at the BOI on July 6, 2018.
“The project is among the collaboration projects between the Philippines and Japan in promoting the domestic automotive industry and deepen its involvement in the regional and global value chains. It focuses on the human resource development, local suppliers development and investment promotion. The upcoming Congress will allow for greater collaboration between the government and the academe. As schools improve its curricula, it will also allow students to consider the job opportunities offered by the automotive industry,” Executive Director Dichosa
said.
“We focus on outcome space education which is results-oriented. We make sure our curriculum is attuned to the needs of the industries. So this opens up more job opportunities for our students
once they graduate,” Mr. Lahoz meanwhile said.
“Our job is connecting and linking up companies. This is one big collaboration between the government and the academe. And we make sure of connecting the best of the best among schools and in providing the best job opportunities,” Gioca pointed out.
“This is about government and the academe getting closer. We are amazed at the willingness of the schools and the firms that have participated in this project,” Takano added.
The holding of the Auto-Academe Congress is timely as the government expects increasing job opportunities with the full implementation of the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) and the Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Modernization Programs. The Congress will expose students to possible employment opportunities in the automotive industry and it allows TIP to forge a stronger linkage with auto-related firms in the improvement of its curricula and the expansion of its Technopreneurship and Collaborative Applied Research (TECHNOCoRE) activities. Through Jobstreet’s job and internship search services, students and industry coordinators not only from TIP but also from other universities, colleges and Technical and Vocational Education training (TVET) providers will widen their career options after graduating. Furthermore, automotive firms will have every opportunity of selecting the most qualified and most capable of students.
The automotive industry is considered one the strong drivers for economic growth and job creation with substantive multiplier effects on knowledge transfer and linkages creation within the
economy. According to one JICA study, the automotive industry is forecasted to grow sales of 1.2 million units by 2027.
