USAID-Funded GOI Project Launches
April 5, 2023
On Mar. 13 and 14, the GOI and the Unilab Foundation launched the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development System (AMWDS), a project funded by a $5 million grant from USAID, that will develop training programs to help up to 10,000 Filipino workers learn skills in advanced manufacturing.
The launch kicked off with a ceremony attended by government and industry leaders, who collectively make up AMDev (The Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development Alliance), for which AMWDS is being developed.
In a speech at the event, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, MaryKay Carlson, praised the collaboration as promising “sustainable, inclusive, and transparent economic growth in the broader Indo-Pacific economic community.”
“AMDev will improve young people’s ability to gain meaningful employment and contribute to building a peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous future for all Filipinos,” said Carlson.
The event was attended too by cabinet secretaries of the Philippines national government and Clinton Andrew Campos Hess, the Chairman of the Board of Unilab Inc., the largest pharmaceutical company in the Philippines.
On the second day of the launch, AMDev members held a workshop to share ideas and chart a path forward. The workshop was bookended with remarks by Thomas LeBlanc and Yvette Malcioln, the Chief and Deputy Chief of the USAID Office of Education.
“What do we mean by ‘advanced manufacturing’?” asked George Westerman, GOI’s founder, as he led a discussion to clarify project focus. “It’s more than tech,” he later said. “It’s a redesign process. It’s people.”
Westerman emphasized that AMWDS, the USAID-funded project, would focus on the people of advanced manufacturing—on skills and ways of thinking. Westerman added that AMWDS would build advanced manufacturing capabilities, which he distinguished from industry 4.0.
To develop training programs in the Philippines, Westerman offered a trans-pacific vision, drawing on his experience with MassBridge—a project to develop advanced manufacturing programs in Massachusetts—as a model. That project had identified skills and educational needs that span advanced manufacturing across the globe.
Other speakers at the workshop gave data on the economy and skills needs of the Philippines. An economic powerhouse in the country, manufacturing in the Philippines exported goods amounting to 78.8 billion USD in 2022, said Danilo Lachica, Chief of Party for AMDev.
Gonzalo Serafica, Executive Director of CiSTEM, an offshoot of the Unilab Foundation, showed initial data from an AMDev survey of manufacturers. The survey identified must-have skills for junior personnel, including supply chain integration and data analytics. The survey found too that employers in the Philippines believe workers “need extensive improvement” in “enabling competencies,” like self-management and adaptability.
Together, the launch ceremony and workshop “created cohesion and momentum for the USAID project,” said Westerman. “We are proud of these events.”
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