Every year, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) release the lists of in-demand courses, but we chose to believe in our neighbors instead of the Government.
Can somebody tell the Filipino parents and students that nursing, business management, and seafarer courses are no longer on-demand based on the current global compatibility index?
The mentioned courses according to DOLE have the highest unemployment rate. Should we still gamble our children’s future because we want them to have high-paying jobs despite the extremely stiff competition?
The government already told us to do this and not to do that, but we still insisted –afterward we blame the government because we couldn’t find a job. Aren’t we stupid?
I’m not here to criticize the parents of jobless graduates. I am here to give an idea of what is really happening and why we have a very high unemployment rate on professionals that have low demand in the job market.
I’ve been living here in Tanauan City, Batangas since 1999 and have just resigned from my job for good after 15 years of being an employee. Although I’m a graduate of Teacher Education with a Technical subjects major, I’ve never been jobless during the course of my employment life.
I have five nephews in Bacolod City whom I fully supported during their school years. Since I was the one who asked them to go to college, I was also the one who suggested what courses they should take if they want to be competitive after graduation. In fact, I only gave my suggestion to the oldest among siblings.
The oldest among five siblings took a 4-year automotive course at CHMSC-Talisay City. In his senior year, he worked as an OJT in a European Car Dealership in Bacolod City and was absorbed later. He signed his regular employment contract the same day he graduated. Now he is a supervisor in the technical department of that company.
Seeing that their oldest sibling getting a job flawlessly after graduation, the younger three took the same path. All three took engineering courses and the job has never been a problem right after their graduation. The three have been employed herein Laguna and Batangas after graduation. One is still in college completing his remaining semester.
DOLE, in a press conference last Monday said that the main problem is “Skills mismatch –oversupply”. Here, in Region IV-A, even high school graduates, especially girls, have no problem finding jobs in the manufacturing industry earning minimum wage, but with complete employment benefits. It is really disturbing to hear that more than a million professionals can’t even find minimum-wage jobs because they are overqualified, underqualified, or have no available job for them at all.
The government should not be held responsible if there are millions of jobless professionals. We are the ones who are making our career and not the government.
The nursing thing has been hurting my ear for a decade. Every here and there, I hear mothers saying she wants her son/daughter to take nursing in order to work abroad (London or USA). She wants her son/daughter to work in a hotel because it is clean work. She wants her son to be a seafarer because it pays a lot. Did you see the real problem?
These parents should realize that the real world is totally different from what they envisioned.
Jobs are not hard to find if you are fully prepared while still going to college. As of May 2019, the lists of unemployed registered nurses rose to more than 200,000, Seafarers are about 380,000, and business-related courses at 220,000 (excluding those who are working in call centers).
The problem is already there and we can only provide prevention. In order for other parents not to fall into the same hole, here is the list of in-demand courses that you may suggest to your children when they go to college (2014-2018).
The government is providing jobs and we should align our careers to those available jobs. We can’t ask for more hospitals, more hotels, or more ships from the government in order to apply what we have studied in school.
If you want to work in BPO then take a computer-related or IT course. Unemployment is high, but still, there are a lot of jobs to fill waiting for the right people. Your son or daughter might be the one to fill that position soon if you make the right decision today.
Yes, every one of us has our own dream. But we cannot put our dream into reality if we ignore reality and continue dreaming.
Good Luck!
