Strengthening TVET-Higher Education Ladderized Interface

Policy, purpose, and academic freedom

Section 2 requires the State to institutionalize a ladderized interface between TVET and higher education to open pathways of career and educational progression.
Section 2 directs the creation of a seamless and borderless system of education with flexible entry and exit points in the educational ladder.
Section 2 mandates job platforms at every exit and provides an opportunity for income for students and workers.
Section 2 recognizes and supports the promotion and protection of academic freedom of higher education institutions (HEIs).
Section 2 requires government to uphold academic standards, equity principles, promptness and consistency of applications/admissions and equivalency policies of HEIs.

Definitions and key concepts

Section 3 defines articulation as a process enabling smooth transition to the next course, program, or educational level without duplicating learning, guided by the principle that no student repeats course content for which credit has already been received.
Section 3 defines credit as the value given to a course or subject based on competencies and learning outcomes.
Section 3 defines credit transfer as a credit conversion established to promote student mobility by ensuring that units earned from different modalities are credited by institutions.
Section 3 defines embedded TVET qualification in a ladderized degree program as the process of determining TVET competencies/qualifications that lead to job platforms in the relevant higher education or bachelor’s degree program, while allowing full TVET qualification even if a ladderized-degree student exits to work.
Section 3 defines equivalency as assigning equivalent academic credits to demonstrated competencies via assessment tests to enable entry into higher-level qualifications without unnecessarily retaking courses already demonstrated as competent.
Section 3 defines job platform as the gateway in ladderized curriculum reached upon acquiring enough skills and knowledge to seek and find employment.
Section 3 defines ladderized education as harmonization of education and training mechanisms allowing progression between TVET and higher education programs or vice-versa, creating a seamless and borderless system that allows transfers through flexible entry and exit in post-secondary education.
Section 3 defines Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF) as a national policy describing qualification levels and setting standards for outcomes of qualifications, based on quality assurance of knowledge, skills, and values acquired in different ways.
Section 3 defines qualification as formal certification that a person achieved specific learning outcomes relevant to academic, industry, or community requirements.
Section 3 defines recognition of prior learning as acknowledgment of a person’s skills and knowledge through previous training, work, or life experience to grant status or credit for acquired competencies.

Philippine Qualifications Framework and coordination

Section 4 establishes that the PQF shall pursue: (a) adoption of national standards and levels for outcomes of education; (b) support for pathways and equivalencies to access qualifications and facilitate movement between education/training sectors and the labor market; and (c) alignment with international qualifications frameworks to support national and international mobility through recognition and comparability of Philippine qualifications.
Section 4 creates the PQF National Coordinating Committee (PQF-NCC) composed of CHED, TESDA, DepED, DOLE, and PRC, chaired by DepED.
Section 4 mandates that, in the development of ladderized education, CHED, TESDA, and DepED must closely coordinate and effectively implement a unified PQF that establishes equivalency pathways and access ramps for transitions and progressions between TVET and higher education.
Section 4 requires the unified PQF framework to include qualifications and articulation mechanisms including credit transfer, embedded TVET qualification in ladderized degree programs, post-TVET bridging programs, enhanced equivalency, adoption of ladderized curricula/programs, and accreditation and/or recognition of prior learning.
Section 4 directs CHED, TESDA, and DepED to design harmonized guidelines and equivalency competency courses to enhance delivery of high-quality TVET and higher education courses, synchronize standards, upgrade curriculum design per discipline, and adopt a strategic implementation scheme including massive consultation and information dissemination.
Section 4 compels CHED, TESDA, and DepED to continue exploring and developing mechanisms and systems to create a seamless and borderless education system through the TVET-higher education interface.

Priority disciplines and program enhancement

Section 5 directs CHED, TESDA, and DepED, in consultation with industry, DOLE, DA, DTI, DOST, NEDA, PRC, and other related agencies, and consistent with the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), to identify priority disciplines and programs for ladderization based on labor market realities.
Section 5 instructs CHED, TESDA, and DepED to implement ladderization of other disciplines beyond those presently being implemented when necessary and beneficial based on a comprehensive study of viability.
Section 6 directs CHED, TESDA, and DepED, in consultation with PRC and industries as applicable, to jointly devise systems, procedures, and mechanisms for efficient and effective implementation of the Ladderized Education Program (LEP).
Section 6 authorizes CHED, TESDA, and DepED to issue, amend, and update existing implementing guidelines as necessary to ensure LEP objectives are met.
Section 6 allows incentives to HEIs and technical-vocational institutions to encourage wider participation in the LEP.
Section 6 requires designated personnel at the regional and provincial levels responsible for nationwide implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the LEP.

Support, scholarships, and HEI enabling

Section 7 mandates the PRC, DOLE, DA, DOST, DTI, NEDA, DBM, and other related agencies to extend necessary support and provide relevant inputs for effective implementation of the ladderized education system.
Section 8 requires CHED, TESDA, and DepED to include in their respective budgets scholarships, grants, and loans to deserving students and workers availing themselves of the ladderized system, in addition to existing CHED and TESDA scholarship programs.
Section 9 allows HEIs whose curricula have been recognized by CHED to avail of the ladderization program.
Section 9 requires compliance with the minimum curricular requirements under joint guidelines of CHED, TESDA, and DepED, and requires these to be duly certified by these agencies prior to formal offering of ladderized education programs.
Section 9 requires an HEI to submit to the CHED Regional Office a copy of the curriculum for the proposed ladderized program for monitoring, compliance, and potential objective inputs from technical experts.
Section 9 requires CHED to transmit submitted curricula to PQF-NCC for reference.
Section 9 provides that failure of HEIs to submit the curriculum to CHED Regional Office subjects the HEI to administrative sanctions imposed by CHED.

Academic freedom and admissions

Section 10 states that nothing in the Act restricts HEIs in the exercise of their academic freedom.
Section 10 preserves the HEI’s right to assess the level and standard of previously completed TVET programs by an applicant-student in a transparent and objective manner.
Section 10 requires the assessment to incorporate the HEI’s own admission requirements.
Section 10 provides that an applicant-student must gain admission to the HEI’s undergraduate program by meeting prescribed criteria and program requisites and other HEI requirements.

Appropriations, implementing rules, and effect

Section 11 provides that the amount necessary for initial implementation is sourced from the current budgets and development funds of CHED, TESDA, and DepED.
Section 11 requires continued funding to be included in the respective annual appropriations of CHED, TESDA, and DepED in the General Appropriations Act.
Section 12 directs CHED, TESDA, and DepED, in consultation with relevant stakeholders in higher and technical-vocational education, to issue implementing rules and regulations within sixty (60) days after effectivity of the Act.

Separability, repealing, and validity

Section 13 provides a separability clause: if any provision is declared unconstitutional or invalid, remaining separable provisions continue in force.
Section 14 provides that all laws, decrees, orders, rules, and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the Act are repealed, amended, or modified accordingly.