Nowhere to Go for Most
Graduates
Jobs and graduates seriously mismatched
For many of this
year’s graduates, the joy at getting to march on stage and receive the
hard-earned diploma will most likely be short-lived as they would soon
face the difficulty of finding jobs that match their degrees.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
For many of this
year’s graduates, the joy at getting to march on stage and receive the
hard-earned diploma will most likely be short-lived as they would soon
face the difficulty of finding jobs matching the degrees they completed.
Even Labor Secretary
Patricia Sto. Tomas has long been lamenting the mismatch between the
graduates being produced by the country’s colleges and universities and
the jobs available. She sees it as one of the factors behind the country’s
increasing unemployment rate – something that she has been saying for a
number of years now.
|
Job
recruiter talks to Filipinos applying for work in Iraq
BULATLAT FILE PHOTO |
“Job-skill mismatch
is a very serious matter that must be addressed and given sufficient
priority if we are to effectively deal with our employment and
underemployment problems,” she said in a media interview way back in 2003.
Based on data from
the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), 447,847 students are expected
to finish college this year. A look at how they are distributed across the
disciplines would show how many – or how few – of them would be getting
opportunities for employment relevant to what they studied for.
Out of this number,
126,631 or 28 percent would be earning degrees in business administration
and related courses like accountancy and secretarial courses. Charlie
Calimlim of the CHED’s statistics department said these programs also
yielded the most graduates in the last two years.
Next to business
administration, the courses that produced the most number of graduates are
as follows: education and teacher-training courses (90,259), engineering
and technology programs, including marine engineering (54,897),
information technology (41,403), and medical and allied courses like
nursing, radiological technology, and medicine (30,919).
If last year’s
employment trends would repeat themselves, the prospects of getting jobs
matching qualifications would be next to an impossible dream for most of
the 447,847 students expected to graduate this year.
The Philippine Labor
Force Survey of January 2006 shows in 2005, the country’s largest employer
was the services sector. Almost all areas of employment in the services
sector, except health and social work, registered increases resulting in
an overall growth of 371,000 – from 15.3 million in January 2005 to 15.7
million in January 2006.
The services sector
includes the following areas: wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor
vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods; hotels and
restaurants; transport, storage and communication; financial
intermediation; real estate, renting and business activities; public
administration and defense, compulsory social security; education; health
and social work; other community, social and personal service activities;
private households with employed persons; and extra-territorial
organizations and bodies.
On the other hand,
employment for government officials and special interest which covers
executives of corporations and organizations, managers, managing
proprietors and supervisors grew only by 61,000 – from 3.675 million in
January 2005 to 3.736 million in January 2006.
These are the most
likely occupations that may absorb the fresh batch of graduates. But since
managerial positions are filled up only by those with relevant experience,
fresh graduates of business administration and related courses will most
likely end up as clerks, sales persons, secretaries, and receptionists in
the hope that one day, they will rise up the corporate ladder.
Only a few of the
graduates of education and teacher-training courses can expect to be hired
in teaching positions. While the public school system is consistently
short on teachers, budget constraints limit the number of teaching
positions being offered. The last time a substantial number of teaching
positions was opened was in 2004. A total of 10,000 teaching positions
were made available for entry-level teachers. If the same was offered
next school year 2006-2007, only 11 percent of the 90,259 graduates can be
hired.
The others may try
their luck with the contractual teaching positions offered by cities and
municipalities. For example, the Quezon City government hires 400
contractual teachers per school year. The rest may have to wait for
vacancies opened up by retiring teachers or those going abroad.
Most graduates of
medical and allied courses aim to work abroad. They usually stay for a few
years just enough to gain experience and boost their chances of overseas
employment. Thus, even if there are more graduates than new jobs
available, the country experiences an extreme shortage of health
professionals, especially in the provinces.
Prospects for
graduates of engineering and information technology courses, if they plan
to work locally, are also not too good. Employment
in the industry sector registered a
negative growth of 95,000, from 4.977 million in January 2005 to 4.882
million this year.
CHED data from 1990
to 2003 shows a consistent growth in the number of business administration
graduates yearly – from 73,021 in 1990 to 110,870 in 2003. This field has
consistently been the topnotcher in terms of the number of graduates by
discipline group – consistently producing more than 20 percent of all
graduates by course annually.
Since all
corporations whether in the service or industry sectors involve business
administration, prospects for job openings for graduates of business
administration and related courses are better. Added to this, dreams of
climbing the corporate ladder, earning fat salaries, and rising from
poverty are common among the youth.
These may be the
reasons why courses training students to it manage to attract the greatest
number of students in universities and colleges yearly. The country’s
colleges and universities – mostly private – encourage this trend as it
means more enrollment and therefore bigger profits for schools.
Consequently, this
field yields the most graduates by discipline group yearly.
On the other hand,
the country’s growing number of graduates forces them to crowd each other
out in the few available jobs for those without work experience. The
relatively few graduates of private schools with good English proficiency,
whether graduates of business administration or engineering, end up as
call center agents. But generally, graduates end up searching for
employment in an economy that has little space for the likes of them.
The over-all
character of the economy is the reason behind the lack of decent work
opportunities in the country. The mismatch between the jobs available in
the market and the graduates produced by the universities and colleges is
part and parcel of this and is thus a factor that cannot be overlooked.
This is one of the
reasons behind the sad fact that for many of our country’s young people,
the much-anticipated graduation from college all too soon turns into a
source of deep frustration. Most of those who graduate from college in the
Philippines yearly simply have nowhere to go. Bulatlat
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