HIGHLIGHTS:

• COVID-19 emphasized the importance of digital skills in the workplace. 
• Asia and the Pacific workers have expressed interest in digital reskilling and upskilling. 
• ADB supported the piloting of a partnership between the private and public sectors to test a digital curriculum.  

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FAST FACTS:

Country: Philippines  

Year of implementation: 2021–2023

Technology: Artificial intelligence

ADB Department: Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department1

ADB Partner: Eskwelabs—technology service provider

In line with ADB’s Operational Priorities:

• Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities
• Human capital and social protection enhanced for all 
• Quality jobs generated  

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BACKGROUND  

COVID-19 caused major disruptions across industries. In Asia and the Pacific, about 58 million became unemployed because of the pandemic. Young workers were particularly affected by the mass lay-offs, particularly those who had low job security and low-wage employment.1 Meanwhile, many businesses in the region were on the path towards digitalization even before COVID-19. The pandemic became the accelerator for digital transformation—companies that were slowly putting in place digital technologies were forced to fast-track their adoption of these tools and systems to adapt to new demands practically overnight. A key element of this digital transformation is the upskilling or reskilling of workers in digital skills. Job seekers can also benefit from upgrading their digital skills as a new breed of jobs are likely to  

Emerge, while many of the old jobs, which were suspended at the height of the pandemic-related mobility restrictions, were unlikely to come back because of automation and artificial intelligence. As early as 2020, the World Economic Forum said that half of the global workforce will need reskilling in the next five years.2 In addition, supporting the upskilling and reskilling of workers promotes the creation of more inclusive and sustainable economies.3 

ADB launched the “Digital Reskilling and Upskilling of the New Workforce” challenge in 2020 to find an innovative solution that would allow jobseekers, particularly those who have been heavily hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with digital skills to increase their employability. Eskwelabs, an edtech startup, was chosen out of 47 teams in January 2021 to implement its proposed solution with the assistance of ADB.  

SOLUTION 

Eskwelabs, with the support of ADB developed a customized digital training of trainers for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), a Philippine government agency mandated to manage and oversee technical and vocational education in the country. The intent is to enable TESDA, through these trainers, to offer courses covering advanced data skills. Part of its offered solution is a set of diagnostic tools to assess the readiness of TESDA trainers for data analytics project-based learning, which, in turn, would jumpstart the agency’s capacity for handling data-driven projects.  

The training is designed to enable participants to interact with each other, thereby creating a sense of community where the learners can motivate each other to complete their projects.  

TECHNOLOGY 

Artificial intelligence was used by Eskwelabs to develop a job market intelligence model to identify current in-demand topics and skills. The final topics, however, were selected based on TESDA’s feedback.  

RESULTS 

Feedback from participants. Evaluation was embedded in Eskwelabs’ design. Ninety-two of the 120 participants  completed by the training.  

The participants gave a 76% net promotor score to the learning sprints, indicating that they were highly satisfied with it. In addition, daily sprint satisfaction averaged at 4.2 out of 5. There was also high satisfaction with class instructors and small-group mentors, with a central tendency of 4.7 and 4.8 out of 5. The learners also provided the feedback that the learning sprint was mostly relevant to their work and the difficulty was just right. On the other hand, some participants said that the pacing was somewhat fast, although the majority said that the pacing was just right for them.  

Ninety-seven percent of the participants said that they were likely to recommend the Eskwelabs learning sprint to others. Meanwhile, 92 out of the 97 participants said that they would be able to apply their new knowledge to their work. 

Training results. The groups’ mentors, as well as practicing data analysts and data scientists were tapped to assess the learners’ performance, who deemed that there was marked progress in the learners’ knowledge on key topics.  

Included in the outputs of the training are a learners’ insight file to inform TESDA of the performance of the performance and a manager’s guide to enable TESDA managers to extend the return of investment of the training for their staff. In addition, each of the groups were provided a slide deck that they could use to discuss how data projects could help them in achieving the goals of their respective offices.