Some 22 state universities and colleges have partnered with the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA) to open Clark Freeport to a new generation of student interns.
This arrangement is aimed to strengthen the talent pool that keeps companies that invested in Clark.
Under the partnership signed on July 8, 2026, Pampanga State University (PamSU) will serve as the lead institution to take in students sent by 21 universities and colleges from different parts of the country and place them in Clark’s industries for internships, exchange, and cultural immersion.
Through its memorandum of agreement with CILA, PamSU gains access to Clark’s locators: the electronics and semiconductor firms, logistics operators, and other enterprises that drive the zone’s economy.
In the second agreement, forged with the 21 institutions, PamSU was tasked to coordinate placements, supervision, accommodation, and exchange and immersion activities.
The freeport hosts around 1,350 locators and some 151,000 workers, according to the Clark Development Corporation.
The state-run firm said “a steady supply of graduates ready for work is one of the things that keeps existing firms in place and draws new investors in.”
By connecting students to these companies, the partnership positions the SUCs as a dependable source of talents.
The 22 institutions belong to the cluster of state universities and colleges under the oversight of CHED Commissioner Michelle Aguilar Ong.
They were tasked to demonstrate a working proof of concept: a live pilot that could support the eventual passage of a national policy on local internships and exchanges, which Ong sponsored before the commission.
That proposed policy establishes a framework for internships and exchanges among Philippine higher education institutions, combining industry placements with study exchange and cultural immersion. It is designed to give students from lower-opportunity regions access to industry in the country’s more active economies, deepen their appreciation of Philippine culture and heritage, and allow universities and colleges to share
The framework is positioned as a domestic, lower-cost counterpart to international internship programs, reaching students who cannot easily afford to train abroad.
“Many of our students come from regions where the industry is out of reach,” Commissioner Ong said. “This brings them to the companies that can hire them, and it lets those companies see the talent our state universities can produce. If we prepare them for it, Clark gains a workforce it can rely on, and our graduates gain opportunities closer to their reach.”
CHED Chairperson Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis said the collaborative design convinced the commission to move.
“It is true that a state university can do this on its own,” Agrupis said. “But a group of universities and colleges doing it together is more effective for industry, because it offers one point of coordination and a wider pool of talent. That is why the Commission en banc approved this as a pilot – to prove the approach before we take it up as policy.”
The pilot will run through PamSU and its partner institutions, with outcomes to be documented and reviewed as the CHED weighs the broader policy.
