THE Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will release the new curriculum guidelines this school year for the Business Administration, Hotel and Restaurant Management, Information Technology (IT) and Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE), the most popular college programs in the country.
CHED said the new guidelines contain more input from the industry sector to address industry-academe mismatch in producing employable graduates. The initiative was a result of the partnership between the CHED and Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Philippines. PBEd said the added industry input ensures that at least 850,000 tertiary students enrolled in the four programs across the country will receive an education that is closer to what the industry wants.
The one-year partnership between PBEd and CHED was formalized in 2013 through a memorandum of understanding signed by CHEd Chairman Patricia Licuanan and PBEd Chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. USAID/Philippines Mission Director Gloria Steele witnessed the signing.
Under the terms of the partnership, PBEd would provide the CHED with additional input from industry on the expected outcomes of fresh graduates. This was completed through a one-day workshop that featured participants from the People Management Association of the Philippines, Management Association of the Philippines, Tourism Congress of the Philippines, Philippine Computer Society, Infocomm Technology Association of the Philippines, Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines among others.
The PBEd said it is now working with industry to define the expected fresh-graduate outcomes for the different engineering programs. In addition, PBEd is also exploring the idea of organizing industry-led “sector bodies” in management, hospitality, IT and ECE that will be responsible for enforcing the outcomes defined during the workshop.