Cebu City, Cebu – On January 25, 2024, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. and AFOS Foundation entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with partner companies and educational institutions to implement the Dual Education and Training (DET) program for the seafood processing sector. This move aims to address job-skills mismatch through industry-academe collaboration in the implementation of DET in Metro Cebu.

Serving as an excellent platform for workforce development initiatives, CCCI-ACAS partnered with six companies from the seafood processing industry, including Central Seafoods, Inc., Siargao’s Bounty Seafoods Corp., Phil-Union Frozen Foods, Inc., It’s One Export Import International, HJR International Corporation, and Akai Foods, Inc. The program will be implemented with the support of three academic institutions, namely, Salazar Colleges of Science and Institute of Technology, University of Cebu – Lapu Lapu and Mandaue, and KLN Skills and Management Training and Assessment Center Inc.

Notably, the partnership has established a cluster that identified the in-demand skill sets and competencies necessary for the industry. Existing job profiles under the sector included Quality Inspector, Seafood Production Worker, Specialized Machine Operator, and Quality Assurance & Food Safety Assistant. On top of these developed qualifications is the inception of a new job profile – the Seafood Processing Plant Assistant. Based on the discussion elicited from the FGD, a training plan, and a curriculum will be designed according to industry requirements through CCCI-ACAS.

Another milestone of the activity is the recognition of five In-Company Trainers who completed and passed the In-company Trainers Training assessment by the CCCI-ACAS in 2023. The new pool of In-Company Trainers came from Siargao Bounty Seafoods Corp. and the University of Cebu Lapu Lapu and Mandaue.

Moving forward, CCCI-ACAS will facilitate the presentation and validation of the new training plan and curriculum for the Seafood Processing Plant Assistant job profile. Following this activity is another round of In-Company Trainers Training to produce 15 multipliers for proper monitoring of learners within the school and companies. Finally, the selection of 100 learners will be conducted in collaboration with partner companies and educational institutions. These processes are crucial to highlighting the roles of both industry and academe in workforce development, further addressing the skills gap in the region.

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The MOU Signing Ceremony of DET partners, Recognition of In-Company Trainers, and the Formulation of Qualification Profiles, Curriculum Design and Training Plan aims to achieve Result Area 2: Dual Training in the Fisheries Sector of the FISH Visayas Project.