How the Philippine government supports retailers’ capacity building

PTTC Executive Director Nelly Diller shared some of their training programmes at the Retail Asia Forum in Manila.

Retailers in the Philippines face the challenge of following the retail trends of providing an omnichannel and seamless experience, and last-mile fulfilment. To ensure that they keep their business running, the national government has laid out programmes that will boost their capacity building to comply with these trends.

Nelly Nita Dillera, executive director at the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), said the government through its office under the Department of Trade and Industry provides training to retailers in the areas of sales and marketing, finance and accounting, operations, and human capital.

The human capital aspect covers organisational development, organisational structure, job roles, and the skills and competencies necessary for each position, she said.

The original mandate of the PTTC is to provide support and assistance to exporters…You will need to know information like basics of exporting, logistics and supply chain, etc.,” Dillera said at the Retail Asia Forum in Manila.

“But we're not only looking at the person, [We are also] looking at the products because once you export markets requirements would be more stringent. These are things that we are actually looking at, through training that we are providing,” she added.

The programmes offered are anchored on the Philippine Skills Framework which outlines the specific tasks and critical functions of a job role, as well as their skills and core competencies.

Diller said they have not completed the framework yet but they have finalized the framework in the fields of animation, game development, marketing and sales and partnerships, and human capital development.

Powering suppliers

One of the programmes they offer is Food Connect which provides assistance to potential suppliers to secure a certificate of product registration or license to operate from the Food and Drug Administration.

Digifab, meanwhile, is the government’s programme for prototyping. It also offers a programme for Halal Certification Training.

Diller also said that the latest addition to the government’s programme is the Ensayo Creative Hub which is a co-working space that makes available to the creative industry various facilities such as studios, 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC routers, amongst others.

The government also offers the ASEAN SME (small and midsize enterprise) Academy, which is an online training platform with the content contributed by Fortune 500 companies.

Support areas

The government prioritises three areas for capacity building: source/suppliers, connection/relationship, and retailing.

For source/suppliers, some of the programmes they offer for merchandisers/manufacturers include Food Connect Programmes, basic food safety, current good manufacturing processes, hazard analysis and control points, inventory management, quality management, and Halal Programme.

It also provides customer building and client-vendor relations management capacity building for support/service providers.

In the area of connection/relationship, PTTC connects the source to the retailer and provides them training in the fields of financial, supply chain, and vendor relations management, trade fair readiness, packaging and labelling, design, digital marketing, business pitching, costing and pricing, cyber security, and data privacy.

“It would be easier for you to connect with our suppliers and manufacturers where you will be outsourcing your products, if they are aligned with your system, with how you wanted it to be. We can actually even customise things for you,” Diller said. 

“You do not have to go to the details of doing that training yourself. Let us be your conduit, let us be your training provider,” she added.

PTTC also helps retailers connect to the whole customer experience by providing programmes in visual merchandising, e-commerce, and seamless customer service for sales and merchandising.

It also offers training in market segmentation, branding and product management, sustainability, business continuity, quality management and ISO 9001:2018, cybersecurity, data privacy, and enabling skills for organisation and business excellence.

They also offer training on power skills or soft skills such as critical thinking, staying relevant, and communications.