‘Knowledge workers crucial for RP’

AS they prepare for their annual conference in October, members of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) are preparing concerns they want to raise with President Benigno Aquino III.

In a press conference Friday night, PMAP officers said they want the government to create a national human resources (HR) planning commission, which will see to it that
the national vision includes HR issues.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

The President has been invited to join a discussion on the need to invest in education and strengthen industries that the country’s people can be competitive in.

President Aquino has been invited to join the “town hall-like dialogue” on Oct. 15, the third day of the PMAP conference to be held at the Cebu International Convention Center.

Pointing out that the global economy has shifted its focus to services, PMAP president Jimmy Isidro said “knowledge workers” are critical drivers for business.

“The knowledge economy is driven by people. And for the Philippines to be able to compete, it is necessary that we invest in our people,” Isidro said.

Bong Austero, PMAP vice president and chairman of the 47th PMAP Annual Conference, told reporters that they will raise the need for a national HR agenda with President Aquino.

“The academe is not producing the kind of graduates that we need,” he said.

He noted that around 80 percent of the students tend to take up nursing. However, he said the country needs more students in other fields.

Aside from this, PMAP also wants to include health care as a top concern in the country’s workplaces.

The organizers of the conference are expecting 1,500 delegates to attend.

The topics include new HR technologies, equipment, training and processes.

They will also have a session teaching HR managers the principles of business.

The conference will also showcase a couple who quit their promising careers to teach physics in one of the country’s top universities to go home to Bohol and teach grade school and high school students and produce quality college students.

Austero said the conference is not just for those in the HR departments of their companies. He said the topics are useful to all those who are managing personnel.