22 October 2020 via Zoom
CHED Chairperson J. PROSPERO E. DE VERA III
CHED Commissioner Lilian A. De Las Llagas
CHED Director Luisa S. Valencia
Usec. Rafaelita M. Aldaba of the DTI – Competitiveness and Innovation Group
Director Lilian G. Salonga of the DTI – Competitiveness Bureau
Our Webinar speaker, Holy Angel University President Luis Maria R. Calingo
Ladies and gentlemen, magandang araw sa inyong lahat.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expresses its warm thanks to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for making this collaboration on standards a priority. Today’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sets a significant milestone for DTI and CHED as we both aspire for a highly competitive education system.
On one hand, DTI’s Philippine Quality Award (PQA) is an integrated approach for performance management that sets the standard of excellence to help our organizations achieve world-class performance. It provides an internationally comparable framework and criteria patterned on the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program of the US in assessing organizational performance. This suits perfectly DTI’s mandate to build a culture of quality and competitiveness among Filipinos, corporations, and organizations in the country.
On the other hand, education is about building learners and honing students to become future leaders. To achieve this, our country needs to demonstrate a world-class education system. More importantly, as the Philippines deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that our colleges and universities continuously promote a culture of excellence in their systems and programs. To this end, CHED has their Institutional Sustainability Assessment (ISA) as their quality assurance program to audit the quality systems of our country’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
With PQA having the same goal as ISA, DTI and CHED’s partnership through the alignment of PQA Criteria and ISA Requirements is the perfect collaboration. The alignment of ISA and PQA can be used as an integrated approach of HEIs in achieving performance excellence.
Furthermore, this MOU commits DTI and CHED to work in partnership to further develop assessment policies, standards, and guidelines for the advancement of quality of higher education in the Philippines. This partnership also signifies the common goal of DTI and CHED of advocating quality and performance excellence in tertiary education in the country even during the pandemic.
Ang pagtutulungan na ito ng DTI at CHED ay makatutulong sa paghugis ng mga kabataang Pilipino na maging empowered at economically productive citizens ng ating
bansa. Hindi lamang natin nais na makabuo ng quality mindset sa bawat Pilipino, gusto nating makilala ang Pilipinas sa buong mundo bilang isang bansa na pamantayan ng kalidad at kahusayan. ‘Yun bang ‘pag sinabing “Pilipinas,” magandang quality.
With the help of HEIs as well as technical experts, I am positive that this will mark the start of a more competitive and innovative Philippine education system—especially in the tertiary level. Marami na po kayong nagawa diyan, subalit tayo po ay tuloy-tuloy pong nag-iimprove tulad din po ng mga korporasyon natin dito na ine-encourage natin ng continuous innovation and improvement.
In closing, I would like to point out that the Philippines prides itself for its large, young, educated, and tech-savvy population as a strategic resource to attract investment partners. ‘Yan po ang parati nilang sinasabi pagdating sa bakit pinili ang Pilipinas as their place of investment. What’s more, this university-educated workforce can help respond to the challenges and opportunities in the digital and inter-connected new economy. This will make our country more competitive, which would create more jobs and employment for our people while attracting more investments.
Kung kaya’t tayo po ay magkapit-bisig sa pagpapalawak sa mga kakayahan ng ating bansa na maging globally competitive, habang bumubo ng isang post-COVID future na mas maganda, “Building Back Better.” Sa paggawa nito, makabubuo tayo ng isang mas maunlad na bayan para sa lahat, kung saan ang bawat Pilipino ay maaaring mamuhay ng maginhawa at komportable gaya po ng pinangako sa atin ni Presidente Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Maraming salamat po at mabuhay tayong lahat.♦
Date of Release: 23 October 2020