K-12 sows technical, life skills in learners

Dylan Dellosa, PBEd Director for Teacher Quality, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that the work immersion component of K to 12 develops the socio-emotional skills of Senior High School students while they are being trained technically in the industry relevant to their chosen educational strand. (Shutterstock)

MANILA — Department of Education’s (DepEd) K to 12 program is key to cultivating socio-emotional skills and not only technical skills among learners, the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) said on Monday.

Dylan Dellosa, PBEd Director for Teacher Quality, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that the work immersion component of K to 12 develops the socio-emotional skills of Senior High School students while they are being trained technically in the industry relevant to their chosen educational strand.

“Through work immersion you get to work with people of different personalities.

This can target teamwork and ability to work with people who don’t think like you. DepEd has expanded it to 360 hours depending on the track and given that amount of time, I think the learner will be challenged to cope and communicate and when done right, it will in general also target the socio-emotional skills,” Dellosa said.

Founded in 2006, PBEd is an advocacy group which conducts an annual assessment of the Philippine educational system to ensure it provides quality learning in the context of global economy.

Dellosa said socio-emotional skills are also called life skills which refer to the ability of a person to deal with the different challenges or factors in the work environment to be productive member of the business.

Dellosa said such skills form part of the factors companies consider in hiring the right employees.

“The main concern of the industries is not the technical skills but the socio-economic skills of fhe graduates or trainees. If you don’t know how to deal with a difficult co-employee or boss, how to manage your time or get your priorities right in the workplace or programming your workload in a day, if your working style is not compatible with the company, you really have little chances of succeeding even if you have the technical know-how,” he said.

Dellosa quoted a 2017 report by the Philippine Stastistics Authority which showed that around two-thirds of the employers in the country had difficulty hiring new graduates based on their socioemotional skills. As a result, there is an increase in the unfulfilled job vacancies by 30 percent since 2009 to 2015.

While socio-emotional skills are difficult to assess through quizzes and tests given in schools, Dellosa said they can be acquired through training and learner-centered activities in the classroom.

“This is where the full capacity of teachers will come in. They won’t be able to give what they don’t have. Meaning, they must have socio-emotional skills first before they can model or teach it to their students,” he said.

Dellosa added that their group is convinced that teachers are really important components for learning and that they need to be equipped appropriately to pass on quality and holistic education to their students. Hence, they must undergo a series of targeted training relevant to socio-emotional skills.

“I think rationalizing the standards of the teachers through Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers is the first step to training them. The needs of a new teacher is different from those of someone who’s been teaching for 10 to 15 years,” he said.

Citing the hardships novice teachers encounter in their first three years of teaching, Dellosa said that they could be the primary benefactors of socio-emotional skills training for educators.

“The socio-emotional skills training for teachers should be an ongoing commitment that is not one-time, big-time thing only.

It should have a specific time to monitor in the schools which are able to do it then follow up dapat suportahan iyan kasi that’s how we target skillshindi siya kaalaman kung hindi kakayahan kung paano mo gagawin ang isang bagay (it should be supported because that’s how we target skills it is not know-how, rather it is a capacity on how you’re able to do something), he said.

Dellosa said this could be a big challenge for schools as the training sessions in the country usually involve a lecture-type of seminar.