PAULETTE DEDUQUE LIU: Tech-voc skills as ticket out of poverty
Paulette Liu, president and chief operating officer of Primary Structures Educational Foundation Inc. (PSEFI) – School of Knowledge for Industrial Labor, Leadership and Service (SKILLS), champions the training and employment of out-of-school youth. PSEFI SKILLS continues to grow its network of partners from the public and private sectors to realize its core objectives, which are to alleviate poverty, address skills shortage, and bridge the mismatch between education and industry. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Behind one of Cebu’s most successful technical-vocational institutes is a woman.
Paulette Deduque Liu is president and chief operating officer of Primary Structures Educational Foundation Inc. (PSEFI), the corporate foundation of the Primary Group of Builders (PGB) where she is also senior vice president for human resources and administration.
PSEFI provides technical, vocational, and academic scholarships to marginalized sectors such as out-of-school youth, unemployed individuals, and differently abled persons to help them acquire skills needed to get stable jobs.
At the heart of PSEFI’s initiatives is the School of Knowledge for Industrial Labor, Leadership and Service (SKILLS), a technical-vocational institute that offers a curriculum designed to meet the needs of various industries, including the construction, heavy equipment, health and wellness, hospitality, and maritime sectors.
SKILLS started out as a skills training program by the human resource department of Primary Structures Corp., the construction arm of PGB.
Liu is married to Wally Liu, CEO of PGB with whom she has four children.
It was her husband who suggested that she turn the skills training program under her HR department into a vocational institution through a foundation, in order to help more people and provide skilled workers to their industry.
Partnerships
Since its founding in 2008, SKILLS’s training, assessment, and employment services have reached 35,000 beneficiaries
—8,900 of these as graduates of its technical skills training and academic programs.
It has partnered with public and private institutions, including the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), the Department of Education, and various companies and donor agencies.
It also collaborated with the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) to incorporate the CWB design welding facility in SKILLS programs.
SKILLS holds the distinction of being an organization at the forefront of advancing the role of women in demanding industries, such as construction and heavy equipment operations.
“One of the accomplishments we have is we’ve been training women. We’ve trained the first lady heavy equipment operators, lady welders, and most recently lady masons and lady carpenters,” said Liu in a SKILLS video presentation posted on YouTube.
“In other words, there is no gender differentiation. We give equal opportunities to women,” she added.
Liu said SKILLS’s goal is to be known as a training center that produces and certifies globally competent Filipino workers.
“Our basic thrust here is not just training, but to ensure that our graduates will be able to find an opportunity and a better life, and be able to find jobs in the hope that that would impact the family, the community, and eventually the country,” she added.
Providing opportunities
In 2024, SKILLS expanded to the tertiary level by offering a diploma in civil engineering technology.
According to Liu, more diploma and certificate programs are being planned by linking up with international colleges and universities.
Under her leadership, SKILLS has received several awards, including the Exemplary Grant Management Award from the United States Agency for International Development in 2024.
Liu said all their efforts are to make SKILLS the most sought-after training and assessment center in the region.
“We want to have international partnerships whereby OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) would come back to us and get themselves certified, upgrade their skills, and be able to train the locals according to the demands of the international market,” she said. “SKILLS is trying to give opportunities to those who cannot pursue college education. It’s an opportunity where you acquire skills training and at the same time, job opportunities in the end.”
A psychology graduate with a postgraduate diploma in human resource management, Liu has over 30 years of line and consulting experience.
She was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Global HR Professionals at the Global HR Excellence Awards, held during the World HRD Congress on Feb. 15, 2016 in Mumbai, India.
In 2018, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry also recognized her as Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year.
Liu has always believed that a life lived for others is worth living. She has done exactly that through SKILLS.
