Six Sigma PH Shares 2025 Philippine Skills Gaps Insights at PSTD Research Conference

Oct 30

Manila, Philippines – Six Sigma PH, led by its Six Sigma Master Black Belt Rex Tuozo “The Six Sigma Guy”, presented the preliminary results of the Philippine Workplace Skills Gaps Research 2025 at the 3rd Talent Development Research Conference of the Philippine Society for Talent Development (PSTD) on October 30, 2025.

Joining Tuozo were co-presenters Dr. Kenneth Cruz and talent development practitioner Nica Rabago. The team showed how Six Sigma’s DMAIC method was used to analyze two waves of survey data (2023 n=282, 2025 n=326) from Filipino talent developers and HR leaders to identify which skills gaps really widened and which stayed the same.

Key findings
• Top current gaps in 2025: Critical thinking, Process improvement and project management, and IT/system skills. Process improvement stayed in the top 2 for the second straight survey, confirming continued demand for structured problem solving in Philippine companies.
• Future gaps are more digital: IT and system skills, including AI-related skills, became the number one anticipated gap in the next 1–3 years, showing that technology is outpacing employee capability.
• Gaps differ by segment: Skills gaps increased among Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z, and among employees with 0–10 years tenure, but not among those with more than 10 years, which points to the need for stronger onboarding and early-career development.
• Main causes in 2025: Technology changing faster than skills, misalignment between workforce skills and changing strategy/market, and lack of a clear talent development strategy. Education–industry misalignment also showed a meaningful increase.

Why it matters
The presentation highlighted that the problem is not only the presence of skills gaps, but the speed mismatch: the external environment is changing faster than organizations and people can update their skills. Six Sigma PH recommended turning significant gaps into short projects with owners, front-loading capability building for early-tenure staff, tying learning to on-the-job application, and using a simple skills gap scoreboard to sustain gains.