TAGUIG CITY -- The Philippines on November 18 turned over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council (or ATC) to Singapore.

At the culmination of the second meeting of the ATC at the Hilton Hotel Manila in Pasay City, the Philippines, through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), officially transferred the ATC Chairmanship to Singapore.

TESDA Director General Danilo P. Cruz shared that the ATC, under the Agency’s Chairmanship has accomplished a lot in further strengthening the TVET in the ASEAN region.

He underscored that one of the accomplishments of the Council was the development of the ATC Work Plan 2021-2030 which aims to advance the TVET in the ASEAN region.

“We hope that Singapore will continue the work we have done in the ASEAN TVET Council. The whole council commit to working closely with Singapore in addressing the challenges in the TVET sector,” he said.

The Philippines served as the inaugural Chair of the ATC from 2020-2022 when Singapore served as its Vice Chair. From 2022-2024, Singapore will serve as the ATC Chair while Thailand will serve as its Vice Chair.

The ATC was officially launched on Sept. 16, 2020 during the virtual High-level Ministerial Conference on Human Resources Development for the Changing World of Work, hosted by the Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) of Viet Nam.

TESDA is the lead ATC proponent, having proposed its creation in 2017 during the country’s Chairship of ASEAN, with the purpose of harmonizing regional initiatives on TVET and responding to the changing demands of the labor market caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

The ATC envisions to achieve an advanced TVET towards competitive human resources; market-responsive workforce skills; greater employment opportunities locally and overseas; higher productivity in the digital economy and a human-centered future of work towards a resilient and innovative ASEAN community.

The ATC is comprised of representatives from the labor, education, and economic ministries of the ASEAN Member-States. Four regional organizations, namely, ASEAN Confederation of Employers, ASEAN Future Workforce Council, ASEAN Trade Union Council, and Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Secretariat are also represented in the ATC.

The second ATC meeting focused in the discussion on the implementation of the ATC Work Plan 2021-2030 with its member-states. The meeting also discussed about the areas of cooperation with ATC’s external parties, including Australia, India, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Regional Cooperation for the Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (RECOTVET).

In March 2021, the Philippines hosted the first ATC meeting through a virtual conferencing platform. (TESDA)