Q&A with Lilibeth Aristorenas, Executive Director of the Unilab Foundation, Inc.
January 24, 2023
Lilibeth is the Executive Director of Unilab Foundation, the corporate foundation of United Laboratories, Inc., the leading pharmaceutical and health care company in the Philippines with a large presence in Southeast Asia. Lilibeth spearheads the social innovation lab in the foundation – incubating ideas, piloting solutions, and promoting impact investments and partnerships to local and international organizations for scale and sustainability.
Before joining the Foundation in 2017, Ms. Aristorenas established The Teacher’s Gallery and the Inclusion Initiative in the Philippines, both founded on her advocacy for inclusive education. She also worked closely with UNICEF and The Asia Foundation in carrying out educational programs for the marginalized sectors of society, such as persons with disability and young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Lilibeth currently serves on the Board of Project Inclusion Network and the Center for Integrated STEM. She is also a founding Trustee of STEM Leadership Alliance (SLA) based in the United States. She was also a member of the Board and Treasurer of the League of Corporate Foundations in the Philippines in 2017-2019.
She has graduate degrees in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines, and Human Services from the University of Massachusetts. She divides her time throughout the year between the Philippines and the US.
One core goal of Unilab is to promote STEM education. How has your foundation found ways to support that educational growth?
Our programming is anchored on two (2) core strategies – 1) collaborating with the ecosystem stakeholders – academe, government and industry; and 2) learning from the esteemed international organizations such as MIT Open Learning, Smithsonian Science Education Institute, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and the US STEM Leadership Alliance among others.
When we launched our STEM+PH program pillar in 2019, we purposely formed the STEM Leadership Alliance PH, a multi-stakeholder coalition, with the following goals: 1) to build a knowledge-sharing platform; 2) to explore synergies or convergence for collective impact; and 3) to facilitate the scale of work through partnerships with the government. Two major initiatives implemented by the Alliance include:
- STEMBee, an innovative quiz bee that includes after-school learning sessions and alignment of the questions with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This is in partnership with the Philippine-American Association of Scientists and Engineers (PAASE) and the Department of Education.
- A data-driven research on Correlating the Curriculums and STEM Skills necessary to Support In-Demand Jobs within the Philippines
We also invested on global benchmarking trips: US in 2019 and Austria/Germany in 2022 to learn the framework in providing high-quality STEM education. Hence, all the curricular innovations and training strategies we develop and implement with the relevant Philippine government agencies such as the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) incorporate the learnings being shared by our international partners.
What is the biggest challenge to teaching STEM and upskilling workers in the Philippines?
For teaching STEM – the lack of access to laboratory facilities and digital equipment. Internet connectivity is not available in every home, and not every student owns a laptop or a tablet.
For upskilling workers: accessing quality training programs and funding resources.
Tell us a little about the STEM+ PH program and how it’s been beneficial for educational and economic growth in the Philippines.
Unilab Foundation’s STEM+PH program’s overarching goal is to provide an enabling environment for the next generation of scientists/innovators and Industry 4.0 workforce-ready. In nurturing the STEM ecosystem from basic education to vocational-technical to workforce development, we co-develop training programs with the academe, scientists, and industry that include immersion programs for faculty in our manufacturing facilities.
STEM+PH works towards a high-income nation for the Philippines through an innovative education system that aligns with the future of work.
Recently, USAID commissioned us to lead an Advanced Manufacturing Development Alliance that seeks to develop a pipeline of a highly skilled and adaptive workforce that meets the evolving requirements of Industry 4.0. The alliance also aims to contribute to the national discourse and policies on strategic human resources for the Philippines as the country attains high-middle income status and shapes businesses to be more internationally competitive. In addition, the Philippine Business for Education (PBED) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia have asked Unilab Foundation to build the healthcare skills sector and develop a strategic workforce education.
What area of growth do you see as most important for your Foundation as well as the people you support?
We can only accomplish our mission through a motivated and empowered team. Hence, the most prominent area of growth for the Foundation is investing in learning and development, especially in the areas of project management and monitoring and evaluation using technology tools. Equally important is offering career pathways that align their work with their passion and purpose and mapping a career journey for everyone.
What do you like most about working at Unilab?
A committed board (comprised mainly of the owners) who is willing to invest in programs to address societal issues and make a difference in improving the lives of every Filipino.
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