The current 4 th Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about the need for workers who not only possess technical skills but also have the necessary Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) to be able to apply this knowledge. The new mandate for educators is to produce these workers by transforming from the traditional instructor-centric teaching model to a student-centric one that prepares students to be life-long learners who not only acquired technical knowledge but also possess the ability to use and apply this knowledge. This paper proposed a pedagogical framework based on a merger of Project-Based Learning (PBL), the Universal Design Learning (UDL) framework, and Cognitive Apprenticeship (CA) Model with the aim of increasing the expertise and HOTS level of students, no matter their learning style. The framework has been implemented for the past 2 years and analysis of results has shown, despite the changing of delivery mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that students were able to: 1) acquire and increase their domain knowledge, 2) acquire procedural and process knowledge while solving problems, in given scenarios, as they utilized different methods, procedures, algorithms and techniques, and 3) increase their HOTS competencies.