Perceived Skills Alignment of Marine Engineering Student to 21st Century Skills in Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation

The Philippines is a major provider of seafarers globally but ensuring their skills alignment for the global shipping industry in the 21st century is challenging. AS the world thrives in Industry 4.0, a knowledge-based economy manifests which highlights the lack of qualified seafarers. Addressing the seafarer's skill gap is significant to meet future demands. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) outlined the skills that could thrive in the 21st century: learning and innovation skills, life and career skills information media, and technology skills. The IAMU mentioned skills, life and career skills information media, and technology skills. The IAMU mentioned the significance of qualified human resources in the maritime industry, which can be developed through education. This study used the Pearson r Correlation coefficient to analyze the correlation between the skills alignment of marine engineering students and the influence of educational practices in fostering 21st century skills. The College of Maritime in Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation aimed to provide essential skills to its graduated. while marine engineering students' skills align well with 21st century skills, their inventive thinking skills, specifically in systems thinking and risk-taking, require improvement. The educational practices present to foster the development of 21st century skills among students. However, the practices related to high productivity skills need reassessment. The educational practices particularly for problem-solving skills, can be considered to be incorporated in fostering high productivity skills, given their higher cross-correlation coefficient. The students identified a lack of understanding of the importance of developing 21st century skills and a lack of learning materials or inadequate resources as challenges in acquiring 21st century skills. Overall, the skills alignment has a significant correlation with educational practices for most of the skills assessed except for high productivity skills. This served as a basis for the development of an educational intervention plan for the betterment of areas that need improvement.