GAIN presents CEFR, Language Proficiency Initiatives to TESDA

by Monette Iturralde-Hamlin / March 18, 2025

Early Tuesday morning, March 11, I went to the Technical and Educational Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to attend the first quarter meeting of the Center Advisory Council of its National Language Skills Center (NLSC).

That day, we were joined by Deputy Director for Special Concerns General Felizardo Colambo, and later by Director General Secretary Jose Francisco “Kiko” Benitez. Making up the council are Jimmuel Naval, dean of the College of Arts and Letters of the University of the Philippines; Olivia Limpe-Aw, CEO of Destileria Limtuaco & Co., Inc., myself as president of Government Academe Industry Network, Inc. (GAIN), and our chairperson, Chit Juan, CEO of M.D, Juan Enterprises, Inc. and NextGen Organization of Women Corporate Directors.

Two new members were inducted into the council: Atty. Rosemarie G. Duquez, Director IV of the Department of Migrant Workers, and Rhodora Castro-Caliwara, founder and CEO of Executive Genesis Services, Inc. and national president of the Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors.

Global standardization

GAIN director and Chief Technology Officer of Southville International School and Colleges Rex Wallen Tan presented the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to the council for a better understanding of the need for the Philippines to adopt CEFR as part of its global standardization. It is a standardized framework used to describe proficiency levels across 24 languages, (i.e. English, Spanish, Japanese, etc.), describing in great detail what a language learner should be able to do at a particular level of proficiency; the so-called can-do- statements.

Over 80 countries have already adopted CEFR as an assessment tool. Think of it as a ruler, a universal way of measuring how well people can speak, write, and understand a language. An inch is an inch in a ruler, whichever country the measurement is taken.

Proficiency in CEFR comes in different levels, from the most basic A1 to the most advanced C2. An A1 level speaker can understand and use familiar and simple everyday expressions (think beginner), while a C2 speaker can easily understand virtually everything read or heard, and can express themselves spontaneously, fluently, and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in complex situations.

There are many uses of CEFR, from incorporating it into the national education policy, using it for assessment for language tests, requiring minimum levels for job roles, making learning more accessible through free resources like Duolingo, and using it for research and benchmarking.

Since GAIN was set up seven years ago, we have been advocating for the Philippines to adopt a national education policy that incorporates CEFR, and sets a standard for graduates, that is, at least B1 for high school graduates and at least B2 for college graduates. We realized that other countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan have already incorporated CEFR into their national language polices, but we have not.  

We were ecstatic to learn from NLSC OIC Renan K. Gonzales that all TESDA language courses are now CEFR-aligned, and that TESDA is rolling out a nationwide train the trainers (TOT) program and will be requiring its language trainers to have at least a B1 (intermediate) or a B2 (upper intermediate) depending on the courses taught. PACUCOA has made B1 a requirement for schools, and CHED has set B2 as a target for its college graduates.

The only one in the education supply chain that has not adopted it yet is DepEd, and that’s where we need to start. It would truly be great if DEPED can adopt CEFR into its curriculum, so that internationalization begins at an early age. This is our next target.

Making strides

Watching Wallen present I felt such an overwhelming feeling of pride. I harked back to the early years when I was chairperson of Hopkins International Partners, the exclusive representative of TOEIC in the Philippines. In 2016, Wallen, LA Ferenal, and I were at Palms Country Club, discussing the dismal results of a study we did for 10,000 higher education institute graduating students who took the TOEIC exams. About 30% of the graduating college students tested at A2, equivalent to a Grade 3 Malaysian student. About 49.5% of them scored B1, equivalent to a grade school graduate of Malaysia. In a big Philippine University, BS Education degree graduates majoring in English (the country’s future English teachers) scored the equivalent of a Grade 5 student in English. Unless we did something about this, our country would lose its competitive advantage in English.  

We published the Nation’s English Report Card to draw attention to our plight. Two years later, Aspiring Minds conducted a study of 60,000 higher education students and the results were remarkably similar to ours, with half of those tested scoring B1. Galvanized to do something to arrest the decline in our English language proficiency, we convened two focus group discussions with industry, academe, and government representatives to share the news, and they all said we need to work fast. Thus, we set up GAIN to empower the Filipino people to be globally competent.

A remark made by one of our FGD participants was seared into our hearts: “You will never be successful in this.” We took this as a challenge. As Wallen pointed out today, “Amazing that the small seed we started together is now nationwide and enduring.” Yes, we have really made a lasting impact together.

Partnership with Duolingo

And much of this impact is thanks to Wallen, who has spearheaded working with Duolingo to create the English for Filipinos course that now has 850,000 users. Research shows that Duolingo is as effective as classroom learning, with users significantly improving their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in just three months of regular use. Completing five sections of Duolingo is equivalent to five semesters of university language classes, and it is free of charge. CHED has also given grants for the development of CEFR-aligned content for English education (CEFR A2 to B2) that is now available on YouTube as a free resource. GAIN did the quality assurance of all these courses.

Thank you, Lord, for opening up ways for us to help others have a better life through learning and upskilling. It is an honor to work with TESDA and the members of the council to further enhance the competitiveness and employability of Filipino job-ready workers, locally and overseas through language proficiency. And thank you for the men and women behind GAIN!

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