The “It” Factor Indeed, unemployment in the country does not always mean lack of jobs.  It may also mean that those who are looking for jobs do not have the qualifications that fit the requirements of available jobs, the most basic of which are communication skills and relevant work experience.  

In a mini-survey done by the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) among 50 employers who used the Phil-Jobnet for their hiring requirements, it was found that despite the preliminary matches between a jobseeker and a potential job, most applicants still ended up with no jobs because they: 1) failed in the exams or interview; 2) have poor communication skills; and 3) lacked extensive work experience.  Other factors include reasons such as the applicant’s residence being far from the jobsite and inconsistency of submitted information or documents with the responses of the applicants during the interviews.   Similarly, an ILS content analysis of the classified ads of the Manila Bulletin and the Philippine Daily Inquirer revealed that most jobs now require at least six months of  working experience.  This makes the current school requirement of 150 on-the-job (OJT) training hours no longer responsive to the present market needs.

Ideally, any student should have  gained adequate communication skills and work exposure that prepare him or her for the working world.  However, most college students do not have such preparation.  For instance, while English has been the language of instruction in schools, call center operators are encountering serious hiring problems as only three to five of 100 applicants

meet industry standards of what is “proper” English. The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has even warned that 75 percent of the country’s annual 400,000 college graduates have “sub-standard English Skills.”  In addition, official achievement tests given to graduating highschool students in 2004-2005 school year showed that only 6.59 percent could read, speak, and comprehend English well enough to enter college.  Even worse news is that some 44.25 percent have no English skills at all.

As to gaining enough work experience while still at school, very few colleges and universities have placed value on using the OJT hours as a mechanism to ensure smooth school to work transition for  their students.   A survey conducted in December 2005 by Youth of Today points out that OJT hours among students have not been fully utilized toward gaining experience.  Of the 200 youth surveyed, 36 percent revealed that they never really went on their practicum but had someone from an office sign their practicum documents. About 72 percent of the respondents said that the tasks they perform during OJT are not at all related to their courses and another 24 percent said that they did not learn anything new while on practicum as all they did was answer phonecalls or staple documents.

Square Pegs, Round Holes The situation is worsened because even at the point of enrollment, most highschool graduates are in limbo of which course to take, which discipline guarantees them of a job, or which specialization fits their interests. Without this information, they embark on courses without any idea as to which career directions to pursue.

During the National Manpower Summit held in March this year, human resource shortages as well as surpluses were noted by industry players in cyberservices, mining, and aviation.   This Summit convened industry stakeholders across these sectors: cyberservices, mining, health services, hotel and restaurant, agri-business, medical tourism, creative industries, aviation and overseas employment.

Despite the bright employment prospects cyberservices offers, the industry still faces problems of decline in the supply of English-proficient and computer savvy workers to fill in specialized jobs as human resource analysts, engineering analysts, customer contact agents, editors, and software developers.  Meanwhile, the mining industry also sees an imminent shortage of supply for core operations such as geologists, mining engineers and metallurgical engineers. Local players in the aviation industry are also getting worried with the depleting stock of pilots and aircraft mechanics.  Meanwhile, Summit discussions noted an oversupply of graduates of liberal arts courses, academic disciplines whose demand is either not too encouraging or has yet to be recognized.

DOLE has noted that this “square pegs, round holes” phenomenon explains why  the country still faces challenges in employment among the youth despite the marked improvement in the country’s employment levels. Persons aged 15-24 comprise about 48 percent of the unemployed, almost twice the rate of unemployment nationwide. Of these unemployed youth, 34 percent have reached college while 42 percent have secondary education.  This trend is reflective of a worldwide situation where youth unemployment increased from 11.7 percent in 1993 to a historical level of 14.4 percent in 2003, or approximately 88 million young people worldwide without work.  More than 50 percent of the jobless youth were in Asia and the Pacific.

Match-making  For a country with a large young population, ensuring a smooth transition from school to work is thus a challenge not only for the students, but also for the school system and the government.  This is the reason why schools such as the De La Salle University is now experimenting on an on-the-job training starting after the sophomore year and offering free services such as an active search of companies where students can be placed for apprenticeship training and whose line of business is related to the field of study of their students.

Stronger links between schools and businesses have also proven to benefit prospective jobseekers. An ILS study has shown that graduates of schools that are actively involved in job solicitation experienced shortest job search period.  For instance, graduates of De La Salle, UP and Ateneo are noted for having the shortest job search time.  La Salle graduates take only about 1.8 months waiting time, followed by UP graduates at 2.2 months, and Ateneo at 2.4 months before getting employed. 

Offering school hours that allow college students enough time to venture into part-time work is also helping students gain work experience even while they are still in school.  A case in point, a PUP working student’s experience shows that balancing schoolwork and actual work can actually lead to positive results.

As a response to the employment prospects vis-à-vis the shortages and surpluses presented during the National Manpower Summit, the DOLE is advocating for proactive strategies to strengthen school to work ties. On that occasion, Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas proposed to hold regular Summits to gather information on employment prospects, which will thereafter be disseminated to the Department of Education  (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).  She also called for the setting up of an advisory body that will provide information to colleges and universities on the skills requirements of certain industries, saying that the same information may likewise be vital to the review of curricula relative to the qualification standards set by industry.

Secretary Sto. Tomas also stressed the important role of schools in ensuring employability among their graduates. She recommended that higher educational institutions (HEIs) with a high incidence of employability should be given grants and assistance and that scholarship grants from DOST, GSIS  and OWWA should prioritize students who seek to pursue courses that are deemed highly employable. She also pushed for local government units to set up a skills registry in every city and municipality to effectively integrate human resource management all over the country.

Business leaders are also pitching in their valuable share. The ECCP has started a nationwide “English is Cool” campaign as a concrete step to strengthen the BPO industry. The campaign’s short-term objective seeks to expand the current talent pool for BPOs and contact centers by bringing 250,000 individuals to employability level over five years and the next 1 million to a “trainable level.”   The campaign also targets trainers and professionals through a “train-the-teachers program.”

For the long-term, the campaign hopes to improve basic education and target the 400,000 students that graduate every year and the millions in lower grades.

With jobs up for the taking in several sectors that cut across an array of academic disciplines, with stakeholders doing its share of responsibilities, and with labor policies and programs now finally linking up with the education secto   r, the country may finally bring to life the right mix of workers for a very dynamic labor market.  (With a report from Reann B. Pangilinan).