The Philippines dropped three places in this year’s World Talent Ranking report released by the business school Institute for Management Development, going from 60th to 63rd out of 67 economies, putting it at almost the bottom of the talent barrel.
Released every year, the report ranks economies’ ability to develop, retain, and attract a highly skilled workforce to determine how well they are achieving long term value creation.
The rankings are based on three factors such as investment and development, appeal, and readiness. The Philippines saw its ranking drop in two of the three factors.
In terms of investment and development, the country slid to 64th place this year from 62nd in 2023. When it comes to readiness, we dropped to 52nd from 51st. When it came to appeal, the Philippines climbed to 54th place this year from last year’s 55th.
Comparatively, its peers in the Asia-Pacific are ranked much better. Singapore is 2nd, Hong Kong 9th, Australia 13th, Taiwan 18th, South Korea 26th, Malaysia 33rd, China 38th, New Zealand 39th, Japan 43rd, Indonesia 46th, Thailand 47th, and India is 58th. Only Mongolia (67th) fared worse at last place.
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, IMD said technology’s dual role as a tool for enhancing human capabilities and replacing human labor will continue to be discussed, along with talent competitiveness. “Talent competitiveness in the AI era requires a reassessment of educational systems and corporate training programs to ensure workers possess the skills needed to succeed in an increasingly automated world,” it said.
Despite the massive potential of the Filipino that is at this point, seemingly powered by just ingenuity, resilience, and other intangibles, our embarrassing position in the World Talent Ranking is a reflection of how much we ground we have lost and how much needs to be done in order to maximize that potential. The slip in investment and development, along with readiness, indicates that the solutions shouldn’t be so complicated. If Filipinos can invest and develop our talent to make them ready, we should be able to climb out of the bottom of the barrel.
The problem is if our government is aware of the problem, and if it is willing to do the work that was not done, which led to this dire situation our countrymen find themselves in, especially when compared to their peers all over the world.*
