The 9^th National Education Forum (NEF) was held last 29 August 2019 at Hotel Jen, Pasay City. Attended by distinguished speakers and panelists from the government, academe, and industry, the forum discussed the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in business, work and our daily lives as well as offer solutions and insights on how to go about meeting the challenges imposed by this technological transformation.

The speakers and panelists alike discussed the pros and cons of the 4IR. Ms. Riza Mantaring of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) discussed the wonders of the hologram technology- an image that appears to be three dimensional and can be seen with a naked eye. As an advanced technology, holograms can also perform operations and surgeries outside operating rooms in any country.

Dr. Eduardo Ong of PCCI discussed the creation of a global village through social media revolution embodied by Facebook, Twitter and others that has given everyone a voice and a way to communicate instantly across the world. Such innovations can bring access to products and services to entirely new markets and can give people more opportunities to learn and earn in new ways.

Other speakers showed that digital technology can free workers from automation tasks, freeing them to concentrate on addressing more complex business issues and giving them more autonomy. It can also provide workers with new tools and insights to design more creative solutions to previously insurmountable problems.

Of the negative effects of such industrial transformation, the speakers and panelists agreed that being always connected can turn into a liability, with no respite from the continuous overload of data and connections. Dr. Marvin Adolfo of PMAP pointed out, “human beings will become lazy and live a distanced life through screens, while ignoring the world in front of them. Relations will lose value as most of us now have become busy on our social media life and there is now the prevalence of fake news, voice and facial reorganization, etc, which are regarded as ethical concerns. Further, there are risks of machines overpowering humans as portrayed in movies such as Terminator and I Robot.”

However, there are ways forward in dealing with the negative effects of the 4IR. Our government should take steps to ensure that we are able to capitalize on the 4IR rather than the receiving end of it. Hence, collaborative effort like the government-academe-industry linkages is very critical. First and foremost, we need to improve the quality of education and training in order to create more skilled persons which automatically reduce the risk of losing jobs. Government also needs to focus on increasing markets from priority sectors in order to increase the country’s economy.

Thus, the forum concludes that as a country, we need to shape a future that works for all of us by putting people first and empowering them. In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the 4IR may have the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus deprive us of our heart and soul. But we, as human beings can complement it through the best parts of human nature- that is- creativity, empathy and stewardship or teaching or coaching- which separates us from the “robotic stance” and uplift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of values and destiny. It is incumbent for us as humans to make sure the latter prevails.- GTM

Education and training will play a very critical role in the country’s technological transformation, this according to speakers and panelist during the 9th National Education Forum held at Hotel Jen last 29 August 2019.

PHILEXPORT President, Mr. Ortiz-Luis, emphasized the importance of “government officials, educational institutions, business leaders, and policymakers in pushing forward advocacies on education such as 4.0 workforce readiness, strengthening government-academe-industry linkages as well as best practices on multi-skilling workforce and plotting the ways forward in future-proofing work in the Philippines.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Eduardo Ong, PCCI Chairman for Education, stressed that “the government, specifically those in the education and training sectors, shall continuously push for an enabling education environment that propels industrial revolution and economic resiliency.” It is the responsibility of the government to make sure that the value of partnerships and collaborations shall be undertaken at all levels, in all sectors, with emphasis to fulfill the mission of uplifting the quality of education in the country”.

Moreover, Dr. Ong said “Örganizations like the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Export Development Council (EDC), PHILEXPORT and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) are all working on policies towards identifying the breadth of jobs that are likely to be threatened by this technological advancement. Noting for example is the rapid progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), which indicates a much broader range of jobs than previously thought could be carried out by machines. Therefore, the Commission on Higher Education and other government agencies shall make sure that essential policies shall bring up symmetrical balance so that we will not be worried about automation affecting employment in the country.”

It was also highlighted that as one country, we should believe in the reality that jobs of the future will be the ones that machines can’t do and it is fair to say that anything that can be measured or is based on rules will be automated- an idea which means, we can automate the work and humanize the job. This also means that technology cannot always do the work alone- most of the time, it still needs human intervention.

Hence, it is beyond doubt that education is at the heart of preparing our future and present generations to thrive in a technologically advanced world. As a result, it is vital that we have an educational institution that develops human potential rather than pits it against machines; an education system designed for an industrial economy that is now being automated requires transformation; and from a system based on facts and procedures to one that actively applies that knowledge to collaborative problem-solving.

The said forum was organized by the PCCI Education Committee in collaboration with the EDC-Networking Committee on HRD and supported by PHILEXPORT.- GTM