The Philippine Tax Academy (PTA) is now in the process of designing courses for an online application-based microlearning platform in line with its efforts to make continuing education and training for officers and employees in state revenue agencies readily available through smartphones and other portable communication devices.

A microlearning platform is both a cost- and time-efficient tool that allows learners to select online short-term courses or training modules that are most applicable to their current needs on whatever handheld device is available.

Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said that besides this ongoing project, the PTA, which is under the supervision of the Department of Finance (DOF), has also tied up with the University of the Philippines Law Center in designing a capacity-building and legal training program for officers and employees required to undergo training at the PTA.

The PTA is likewise lining up a series of lectures on climate finance and on tax reform and the fiscal regime in the mining sector, said Beltran in his report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III during a recent DOF executive committee (Execom) meeting.

In his visit to Osaka in February to lead the country’s delegation to the 7thmeeting of the Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation, Dominguez also toured the National Tax College Osaka Training Center.

The tour was designed to help visiting DOF officials learn from the Osaka center’s best practices and experiences and later adopt them to help transform the PTA into a premier tax education center and training hub for officers and employees of the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs (BOC) along with the DOF’s Local Government Finance (BLGF) and the country’s local government unit (LGU) treasurers.

According to Beltran, the PTA is planning to set up permanent campuses in Tagaytay City in Cavite and in the New Clark City at the Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) in Pampanga.

For the Tagaytay campus, the PTA will join other government-run professional learning institutions such as the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) International Training Center in a lot donated by the city government.

Beltran said a plan to set up another PTA campus in the New Clark City, which is now being developed as the country’s first smart and sustainable metropolis, will likewise push through.

He said a benchmarking study for the PTA was conducted recently by the DOF with the National Tax College, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Institute, the Japan Personnel Authority and the Doshisha University in Kyoto.

A senior-level International Seminar on Taxation, another on international taxation for Asian countries, and country-focused training courses on tax administration are available to personnel of the DOF and its attached agencies, Beltran said.

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