Manila, Philippines – SFI Group’s leader, Mr. Luis Alberto A. Anastacio delivered the keynote speech for the 39th annual conference of Career Development Association of the Philippines (CDAP) at the Hotel Benilde Maison De La Salle, Arellano Ave., corner Estrada Street, Manila.
This year’s theme was “Riding the wave of change: Responding to career development issues and challenges.” His speech focused on developing and implementing evidence-based and collaboration-based career guidance services for Out-of School Youths (OSYs), students, trainees, employed and unemployed.
Mr. Anastacio highlighted the important role of Registered Guidance Counselors (RGCs) as well as the Career Advocates in providing relevant career development services to the youth and how these practitioners would be helped to address the issues and concerns brought about by the implementation of the K – 12 to the different stakeholders of the workforce (e.g., students, schools, guidance counselors, career advocates, educational managers, governments, and industries).
Issues and challenges discussed were: (1) finding qualified people for work (skills gap and mismatch), (2) providing career development services by practitioners, (3) lacking of RGCs and Career Advocates to provide relevant and up-to-date career development services, (4) building 21st century skills of the workforce, (5) implicating important points of the Career Guidance Advocacy Program (CGAP) and R.A. 9258 or the Guidance and Counseling Act of 2004, and (6) providing up-to-date labor market information for career guidance initiatives’ use.
Advocacies of SFI Group were also linked with the issues and challenges examined and these are: (1) Accredited Career and Talent Development Professional (ACTDP) for the capacity building program for both licensed and non-licensed Guidance Counselors and Career Advocates; (2) Institute of Career Certification International (ICCI) for international accreditation body for Career Development practitioners who would be of support to the dearth of Registered Guidance Counselors and their responsibilities to their clienteles; (3) Kuder Visions Unlimited for online career discovery, career pathing and career management tools for kids, students and adults; and (4) SFI Group’s complete Career Development program for individuals seeking career, talent and transition management services.
These advocacies were based on the successes of SFI Group’s workforce development programs such as the ACT Efficacy Study, the JobStart Apprenticeship Program and the Philippine TalentMap Initiative (PTMI).
The speaker emphasized CDAP’s pivotal role as the lead organization advocating career development not only in the country but also ASEAN and APAC regions; and SFI’s esteemed local and international partners such as DOLE, World Bank, Suzhou Success Partners, Ltd., and Kuder Visions Unlimited to provide full-fledged career guidance interventions in addressing the challenges discussed.
By the end of the speech, Anastacio encouraged the different stakeholders to (1) use SFI’s TalentMap program for assessing employability skills of the workforce and for building labor market information, (2) build career pathways for career development practitioners using ACTDP and ICCI programs as recognized by CDAP as continuing education program provider of PRC for professional counselors and career advocates; (3) use of end-to-end career guidance interventions for the different categories of workforce; (4) provide appropriate up-to-date career information and skills training to those in need; and (5) integrate employment facilitation program in the career guidance interventions, to include apprenticeships and actual work experience for the OSYs and adult unemployed.
The speaker stressed that SFI Group’s advocacies would not be possible without the garnered support from the partnerships and collaboration efforts built all these years.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together (an African Proverb)….. together we can achieve more, said Anastacio as he challenged the CDAP delegates and the panel of reactors, Dr. Carmelita Pabiton, RGC, member of Professional Regulatory Commission – Board for Guidance and Counseling, Ms. Teresa Ang, RGC, VP for Academics of Concordia College and Ms. Love Basillote, MAEd, Executive Director of Philippine Business for Education.
Dr. Pabiton, in her response, supported Mr. Anastacio’s contentions and discussed its in-depth implications to career guidance in the K-12 curriculum. Ms. Teresa Ang and Ms. Love Basillote likewise gave their insights regarding the keynote speech and provided opportunity to situate career development practices and labor market information’s implications in the academe and industry settings.
Meanwhile, the keynote was delivered in the morning while plenary sessions and concurrent workshops were facilitated within the remaining slots of the two-day conference.
The afternoon session of the conference was facilitated by Mr. Richard P. Monteverde; Dr. Brian Schwartz, and Mr. Luis Anastacio. Topics discussed were the implications of Philippine Talent Map Initiative (PTMI) in the Career Readiness of the 21st century workforce and the proposed ACTDP capacity building and ICCI certification programs for career development practitioners and for professionals who would like to practice career development in the country.
Ms. Patricia Acepcion, the PTMI Head and VP for Sourcing and Recruitment of SFI Group joined the three speakers as she facilitated a question and answer portion of the session.
The second day was facilitated by Mr. Miguelito Relente, RGC, University Counselor of Far Eastern University – Manila and Program Chair of 39th CDAP conference; and Mr. Angelito G. de Guzman, Vice President for Human Resources of Glaxo SmithKline, Philippines who delivered concurrent sessions in the morning. Mr. Relente’s talk was about adapting a US-based career development tool for the Asian Setting – The Knowdell Approach while Mr. De Guzman’s was Managing Transitions: Riding the wave of change.
The afternoon session, on the other hand, was facilitated by Dr. Sheila Marie G. Hocson, RGC, RPsy, RPm, CCOP, CASP, Guidance Director of Far Eastern University, and Ms. Estesa Xaris Que-Legaspi, RGC, PhDc, Vice-Chair of Counseling and Educational Psychology Department, De La Salle University Manila. Dr. Hocson talked about handling career indecision across ages while Ms. Que-Legaspi on reviewing career theories for career guidance use.
Present in the conference were Dr. Luzviminda Guzman, Chairperson of Professional Regulatory Board for Guidance and Counseling of PRC, Dr. Josefina Santamaria, President of Career Systems, Inc., and CDAP Founding President, Ms. Sonia Mendoza, CDAP Board, Ms. Maria Juanita Jose, CDAP President, and Mr. Jose Alejo, CDAP Vice President.
International partners were also there to support SFI Group: Dr. Brian Schwartz, Founder and Chairman of Suzhou Success Partners Management Consulting Co., Ltd., and Kuder Visions Unlimited’s Mr. Bailey Rowell, Vice President for International Client Engagement, Mr. Patrick Bourgeacq Pinzón, International Relationship Development Professional of Kuder, and Mr. Kelvin Tan, International Business Development Associate.
A booth for SFI Group was also set during the 2-day conference. It was operated by SFI Career Center’s Ms. Gina Jusay, Director, Ms. Abigail Coladilla, Career Coach/Program Specialist, and Mr. Erick Atilano, Career Coach/Program Associate, to facilitate the inquiries of the delegates regarding SFI Group’s advocacies.