Work Force Development Agreement between SM Foundation & GPCCI

Dated: February 17, 2025

A remarkable MOU has been signed between the SM Foundation and the German Philippines Chamber of Commerce & Industry. This agreement aims towards building the skilled work labor force all across the Philippines. There had been a considerable gap between the skilled labor available in the market and the actual skills in demand by the industry. The MOU will help to elevate the new skill set of the workforce keeping in view the industry demands.

The main courses to be offered under the partnership of SMFI & GPCCI will include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cyber security, business analytics, e-commerce, and other digital skills. These trainings will be leading towards jobs. This training will include theoretical knowledge as well as practice and hands-on experience for better understanding. Technical experts and trainers from the National University and Asia Pacific College will be offering their training services in this program.

There is a huge demand for technical expertise worldwide, including in Germany. The German businesses are anticipating a 60% increase in the technical workforce demand. The beneficiaries of this agreement will be trained professionals in fields of IT and others; this will not only help the Philippines to elevate their workforce level to meet local industry demands, but also these skilled human resources can be a good source of revenue by exporting labor force to the countries like Germany where there will be high demand of these skill sets.

SM Foundation conducted 183 job fairs in 2024 all across the Philippines in SM Malls. During these job fairs, a total of 6,000 companies were able to link with more than 107,000 job seekers with different skill sets. These job fairs helped more than 14,500 candidates secure jobs. They plan to increase the number of job fairs as well as train the workforce for a better job placement ratio.

During the job fairs, the SM Foundation not only links the job seekers and the employers, but with the help of government desks, they offer complete paperwork required for employment in a single window, including police clearance, NBI clearance, PhilHealth clearance, Tin, SSS, and other paper work.

The Philippine government and the GPCCI highly recognize the services of the SM Foundation, including job placement and training programs. All Filipino youth should follow the news on this training program and enroll them in the desired digital skills training of their interest, these high tech trainings will not only provide them with a certificate and the skill but also will lead to highly paid jobs in the future.