Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 8, March 26-April 1, 2006

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

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-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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