Manila, Philippines --- The problem of job-skills mismatch is being properly addressed, according to

the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

TESDA Director General, Secretary Joel J. Villanueva said the problem has reached President
Benigno S. Aquino III, who in May 2012 ordered TESDA, the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED), and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to find ways to resolve the Philippines'
employment concerns.
The problem is how to more effectively ensure Filipino students can land jobs after their graduation
from college.
The TESDA recently held a forum in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, precisely to address the jobskills mismatch.
Villanueva voiced TESDA's commitment in bridging the "gap between education and the jobs that
are available."
TESDA "intends to plug" the gap, he said.
He rallied TESDA officials, industry partners, and other stakeholders at the event aptly called
"TVET-Industry Forum: Bridging the Gap between Training and Employment."
TVET stands for technical vocational education and training (TVET), the agency's mainstay thrust.
"We gathered these key sectors to hear their concerns and solicit recommendations how TESDA can
address them through policies and programs. We are serious in solving the job-skills mismatch,"
Villanueva said.
He said TESDA is committed to fast-tracking the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF);
developing new training regulations on new skills; encouraging business enterprises via the
"Productivity Incentives Act;" and strengthening the Dual Training System (DTS).
Villanueva cited "positive things" that can help the youth get employment.
"Unfortunately, these developments have not borne out 100 percent optimism to many. Despite the
proliferation of our programs aimed at young people, many still face serious difficulties in getting
jobs," Villanueva said.
He cited that during TESDA's jobs fair in the National Capital Region (NCR), they discovered "the
large discrepancy between those who were qualified for the jobs versus that were hired-on-the-spot.

Villanueva said the country's unemployment rate is still "high" even with huge numbers of jobs
available as shown in the websites of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)
and others.
Saying the TESDA does not pretend to know all the answers to the job-skills mismatch, nonetheless
they are giving their best shot.
"We are convinced that more is needed to bridge the gap between existing skills and what the
employers demand. So, we innovate, enter into partnerships, market TVET, and develop new
training regulations on emerging skills because we want our youth to enter the world of work with
confidence," he said.
On the other hand, there many good things with TVET, he said.

MANILA, Philippines - If the Philippines wants to address the lack of decent paying jobs
for Filipinos, it must first solve the mismatch between skills and demands of the labor
market, said the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
In a statement on Sunday, February 17, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio
Balisacan said the Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority are now focusing on skills mismatch.
"These agencies are working closely with colleges and schools to ensure that the
courses offered match the kind of jobs that are expected to be generated by the
economy," said Balisacan.
"At the same time, the K to 12 program is meant to ensure that students learn enough
basic skills to facilitate the acquisition of advanced skills through training and to support
innovative activity," he said.
Based on the October Labor Force Survey, there are close to 10 million Filipinos who
are either looking for jobs or looking for additional jobs to get by.
World Bank Country Director Motoo Konishi said the Philippines needs to create 14.6
million jobs between now and 2016 to create opportunities for all these Filipinos as well
as those joining the labor force in the coming years.

Balisacan said the government is also addressing policy inconsistencies and

administrative inefficiencies to continue improving the countrys investment climate and
generate better jobs.
"To generate more and better employment, we are working on improving the business
climate and labor regulations," he said.
Balisacan said it would take at least $3 billion investments to create as much as 621,000
jobs every year.
He said the investments must go to employment-generating sectors such as
manufacturing and business process outsourcing.
"Our initial estimates suggest that $3 billion investments in these sectors will create
621,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly through multiplier effects," he explained.
The latest Labor Force Survey showed the number of employed persons increased from
36.5 million in October 2010 to 37.7 million in October 2012. This translated to a drop in
the unemployment rate to 6.8% from 7.1% during the same period. - Rappler.com

In his State of the Nation Address two years ago, President Aquino noted
50,000 jobs in the Phil-JobNet website that could not be every month because
the knowledge and skills of job seekers did not match the needs of the
companies. As of last May 29, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz reported
130,290 vacancies in that website, the governments official jobs portal that
consolidates vacancy postings from various sources. Last January, a record
high of 268,278 job vacancies was posted, while the number of registered
worker-applicants was only less than half (116,795).
Last Labor Day, the Department of Labor and Employment attracted a total of
36,765 job applicants in job fairs held in various parts of the country. Only
1,274 found immediate placement, with another 3,340 applicants told to
undergo further interviews with employers. This suggests that less than one
out of 10 applicants manages to find a job in DOLEs job fairs. And yet
Secretary Baldoz observes that just like in the website, the number of jobs
offered during job fairs normally exceeds the number of applicants.
One wonders why we have a persistent problem with high unemployment and
underemployment, and yet have so many jobs persistently waiting to be filled.
The usual answer is that we face a jobs-skills mismatch wherein the training

of our jobseekers simply does not match the requirements of the companies
looking for people to fill their vacancies. This mismatch problem appears to
span job categories ranging from the relatively low skilled to highly specialized
ones. It is also a problem seen in both the private and public sectors.
In many cases, the skills mismatch is very real. Philippine Business for
Education (PBEd), through its research partner Brain Trust Inc. (BTI),
interviewed various companies human resource officers as part of its USAIDfunded Higher Education for Productivity Project (HEPP). A large industrial
firm in Batangas needs dozens of engineers for its projected expansion, but
cant find suitable recruits. I know one government department needing
dozens of specialists in a particular field, but has so far found only two
qualified applicants among the many who have applied. We all know of the
mad rush students made to nursing schools in past years, and the equally
mad rush of certain colleges and universities to offer nursing courses to meet
the demand. It didnt take long to reach a glut of nursing graduates; now they
are the ones actually paying to be able to work in hospitals for needed work
experience. Otherwise they end up working in call centers or totally unrelated
jobs, putting their highly specialized training to naught.
But the perceived technical skills mismatch appears illusory in other contexts.
Ive heard a number of human resource officers say that what they are looking
for, but have difficulty finding in their applicants, are not so much technical
skills (such as those obtained in science, engineering and technology
courses) but more of soft ones: communication and presentation skills,
analytical ability, resourcefulness, creativity, motivation, ability to work in a
team, honesty and the like. These are all too often neglected in the schools
where the workers are trained. One might well argue that some of these soft
skills cannot be taught in school. On the other hand, the technical skills
demanded by the job can often be readily imparted through in-company
training, making the specific technical training of the applicant less critical.
Many employers only look for any college degree, and for as long as
applicants possess the desired soft skills, they will take care of the rest.
Here, the mismatch is not in technical training, but in something more
fundamental.
In a survey run by BTI, students were asked who chose the course they were
enrolled in. Most said that they made the choice themselves (rather than, say,
their parents). Asked further what influenced their choice, the overwhelming
reply was that the course was in demand.

The problem is that what seems to be in demand now may no longer be so

four to five years later when they graduate and look for jobs. Furthermore,
perceptions on what is in demand could be misplaced and prone to herd
mentality and fickle swings in the market. Meanwhile, most schools also tend
to base their choice of course offerings on what they see students and parents
want, thereby reinforcing the possible error in perception of job market
demands.
In the ideal world, schoolsbe they universities, colleges or
technical/vocational training institutionswould be in regular contact and
close coordination with the potential employers of their graduates, well-guided
on the nature and content of their course offerings in order to be most
responsive to the needs of the firms. The most common way this contact
currently happens is through on-the-job training (OJT) programs that college
seniors must go through. But weve encountered firms that dont take OJTs
seriously, even seeing them as a burden, supervision costs and all. There is
great scope for strengthening linkages between industry and academe to
foster more relevant course and curriculum design, university-based research
agenda, faculty enrichment through industrial immersion, scholarship
programs, and other modes for helping the schools address the persistent jobskills mismatch.
PBEds HEPP project is pushing for institutionalized dialogue between the
supply and demand sides of the jobs market, namely industry and academe.
Without it, we could be counting growing unfilled job postings in Phil-JobNet
and other similar websites well into the future.

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/58177/addressing-the-jobsmismatch#ixzz3PeRLTcfs

Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
With the continuous improvement of the countrys business climate and further
strengthening of industrial relations, the government will brook to no obstacles and will
be twice as intense as in the previous years in addressing the job-skills mismatch in the
country.
This is the message of Secretary of Labor and Employment Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz
after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reported the projected

entry of $3 billion worth of foreign investments seen to create 621,000 jobs in the next
coming years.
The government is steadfast in conducting roundtable discussions and consultations on
policy inconsistencies and administrative inefficiencies that hinder job creation. These
initiatives are on top of the continuing activities related to the four convergent programs
on job-skills mismatch undertaken by the Human Development and Poverty Reduction
(HDPR) cluster of the Cabinet, Baldoz said.
All these are aimed at improving employment generation in ICT/BPO; semi-conductor
and electronics; infrastructure; tourism; and agriculture and fisheries sectors which are
identified as among the top ten priority sectors in the Philippine Development Plan
2011-2016, she added.
The four convergent programs, approved in 2012, are the K to 12 Program, the
Philippine National Qualifications Framework (PNQF), the Career Guidance Advocacy
Program (CGAP), and the Enhanced Phil-Job.net.
According to the DOLE 2012 Arangkada Progress Report, the DOLE was able to set a
high bar in empowering the youth make wise career decisions through the third
convergent program that is CGAP.
The CGAP debuted with the hosting of the First National Career Advocacy Congress on
May 24-25, 2012, in Manila. The event was able to gather 419 participants from the
academe, network of career guidance counselors, Public Employment Service Offices,
key industry players and government sector.
The said activity spawned agreements such as Statement of Cooperation signed by 217
government and private sectors representatives and a Memorandum of Understanding
between and among DOLE, DepEd, and other agencies regarding interagency
collaboration in the promotion of Labor Market Information (LMI) and career guidance.
To date, the DOLE is working on the development of an advocacy plan that will
converge the disparate LMI advocacy initiatives of the government. The goal is to

immerse parents and students on the realities of the labor market and convince career
advocates to use career guidance as an effective tool in addressing job-skill mismatch,
Baldoz said.
The Advocacy Plan shall incorporate in the academic curriculum the holding of Career
Guidance Week for dissemination of LMI materials, career guidance orientations, and
psychological and personality tests in participating schools, colleges, and universities,
she added.
Complementing the same, the PNQF also went full blast in 2012 with President Benigno
S. Aquino III signing Executive Order No. 83, or the Institutionalization of the Philippine
National Qualifications Framework on October 1.
Generally, the PNFQ weaves together basic education, technical-vocational education,
and higher education into one coherent, quality-assured instrument for classifying
qualifications according to a set of criteria for levels of learning outcomes.
As designed in the framework, any high school graduate, especially those who cannot
afford to enrol in a bachelors degree program, may now enrol in any certificate program
offered principally in technical vocational institutions (TVIs), Baldoz said.
This strategy would enable students to immediately qualify for a job that pays well and
provides opportunities for continuous skills and enhancement, she added while
promoting Phil-Job.net as an ally in search of these jobs.
The fourth convergent program involves the introduction of many expedient jobmatching features in the Phil-Job.net.
Among the many changes hosted in the site are, as follows: (a) list of available job
vacancies, livelihood programs, and training opportunities per region; (b) role-based
access control; (c) option for job applicants to apply online and print referral letter; (e)
option for employers to invite applicants for job interview; (f) option for Public
Employment Service Office (PESO) and DOLE Regional Office to refer job applicants;
(g) flexible job matching facility; and (g) provision feedback mechanism.

As for the K to 12 Program, the Department of Education (DepEd) has reported

successful implementation in 9 public, 15 public technical-vocational, and 9 higher
education institutions, or a total of 33 schools nationwide offering subjects of
specialization relevant to the needs of industries.
The DepEd got the highest allocation in the P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013, at
P293.2 billion. With the higher budget, its sees to fund the hiring of 61,510 teachers,
construct 17,939 classrooms, purchase 907,524 school desks and chairs, lay out
90,461 water and sanitation facilities, and procure and distribute 31 million learning
materials to schools nationwide.
The plans are all laid out; and the government will remain committed to the full
implementation of these plans until the goals are met, Baldoz said, even as she
revealed that the focus of labor administration for 2013 is on strengthening convergence
between the government and tripartite partners for the attainment of inclusive economic
growth and sustainable development.
Toward this end, the labor and employment chief revealed the DOLEs latest venture on
job-skills mismatch called the My First Job Program.
The Project shall design, develop, and pre-test a full cycle job placementfrom career
counseling and coaching, access to career information, access to training and linked to
internshipsfor high school leavers and teenagers.
It will be tested in three PESOs involving more or less 1,600 youth. Impact evaluation
after two years will ascertain if the beneficiaries did better in finding comparable jobs
than their peers, Baldoz explained.
The Project is carried out under the auspices of Asian Development Bank.
dole.gov.ph
CEBU, Philippines - Despite the availability of job opportunities in the market, the labor department still
could not assure the thousands of fresh graduates in Central Visayas of employment due to the growing
concern on skills mismatch.

In an interview with The FREEMAN, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional Director
Gloria Tango said that the government agency itself could not guarantee to cater to the demand of new
jobseekers since only a few are qualified for the numerous jobs available nationwide.
Although the department has incorporated a strategy to accommodate the influx of fresh graduates
through job fairs, she said that job and skills mismatch is not eradicated yet, thus keeping the
unemployment and underemployment rates high.
The strategy covers the employment facilitation programs and job fairs conducted by DOLE in partnership
with the Public Employment Service Office (PESO), schools and universities in Cebu, and companies,
she said.
She added that in an actual scenario, there are thousands of vacant positions offered by participating
employers in job fairs but end up not being filled up after the event.
She said that the agency has prepared a list of job fairs to be conducted starting this April to May.

Freeman ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch:

In celebration of Labor Day, she added that there will be four big fairs in Cebu City on May 1.
In order to address the skill mismatch challenge, Tango noted that DOLE has come up with a deliberate
approach in conducting career coaching sessions with high school students in public schools.
In this way, she added that the students will be introduced to skills that are and will be in demand for the
next 10 years.
They will also be guided on what course to take up once they reach college aside from technical and
vocational courses, she said.
We advise them not just to take a course that is trending nowadays. So that by the time they graduate in
college after four or five years, they could still find a position in the employment world, she stated.
She also revealed that they plan to reach out to parents and orient them on what is best for their children.
The results of the January 2013 Labor Force Survey (LFS) revealed that there were approximately 37.94
million employed persons in January 2013 which is equal to an employment rate of 92.9 percent.
The figure is also similar to the employment rate reported in January 2012 at 92.8%.
About 54.1% of the employed persons were found to be working in the services sector while the
agriculture and industry sector make up to 30.4% and 15.5% of the total employed, respectively.
The estimated number of underemployed persons in January 2013 was 7.93 million, placing the
underemployment rate at 20.9 percent of the employed population.

This is higher compared to last years report in which the underemployed was estimated at 7.02 million
comprising 18.8 percent of the total employed.
The unemployment rate, on the other hand, was estimated at 7.1 percent and is similar to the rate
reported in January 2012 at 7.2 percent.
In a report from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-7), Central Visayas posted a
growth of 92.2 percent for employment rate as of July 2012 which is a slight improvement from the
92.5percent in January 2012 but a decline from the 93.7 percent employment rate recorded in the same
month of last year.
The underemployment rate in the region was found to be on an upward trend since July 2010 compared
to the national figures.
Last years underemployment rate of 18.8 percent in July 2012 was reported to be better than the July
2011 percentage. /JOB (FREEMAN)

Jobs mismatch still a

reality
-

AA+A

By Antonio L. Colina IV

Saturday, March 29, 2014

WHEN graduates scramble for work after college, skills become their only fighting chance to win over the employers.
Department of Labor and Employment-Davao Region (Dole-11) regional director Atty. Joffrey Suyao said employers
are now more keen on the skills rather than the educational background of the applicants, which gives rise to the
problem of jobs mismatch.
"Ano ba ang problema bakit hindi nae-employ ang ating mga graduates, supposedly ito yun nakapag-aral, ito yung
may skills, but then when we talk to industries ang sasabihin nila, they don't have the skills that they are looking for or
they might have the skills but it's not much of what they need," he said.
In Dole parlance, jobs mismatch means when the job seekers do not match the skills requirement of the employers.
"It's a major problem, and it's the problem not only common sa Pilipinas. It's not only isolated to the Philippines
because this is a problem worldwide," he said.
The jobs mismatch, he said, forms a major part of the unemployment rate.
With this, the labor department is in serious talk with the education sector to update their course curricula that will
bring the skills closer, if not at par with the standards of the industries.

"We talk to our our training education sector: DepEd, Ched, and Tesda. Sinasabihan natin sila na ito yung kailangan
ng industries, why don't you supply these skills. Ito yung demand," he said.
On the supply side, the labor official said educational institutions are slowly becoming receptive to their appeal to
review their course curricula, if indeed, they are producing graduates with the right skill set for the companies on the
demand side.
"That's why, in Davao Region, we have what we call JobsFit, a document that details out which industries need more
workforce and what skills," he said.
According to JobsFit released in June last year, the agriculture, hunting, and forestry still top the employment forecast
from 2010 to 2016 in the region.
For 2014 employment forecast, the number of jobs is expected to reach 672,100 jobs, which is expected to increase
further to 673,730 jobs by 2015 and 675,350 jobs by 2016.
Trailing behind is wholesale and retail industries with 379,230 jobs for 2014, which is seen to reach 390,800 by 2015,
and 402,380 jobs by 2016.
Listed as the third highest job generators are transportation, storage, and communication with an employment
forecast of 135,430 jobs in 2014, which will grow to 138,600 jobs and 141,780 jobs by 2016.
Manufacturing comes the fourth highest with employment forecast of 119,230 in 2014; 122,950 in 2015; and 126,630
in 2016.
Dole 11 assistant regional director Venerando Cebrano said the growth of the manufacturing will give rise to the
number of other job-generating sectors that will stir the local economy of the region.
"Sabi nila mas mataas ang economy pagka marami ang nagma-manufacture. That's one good theory. So, if a region
is into manufacturing, then it's a good region," he said.
With its high demand for labor requirement, more jobseekers will be employed in manufacturing alone, plus the other
sectors will benefit in the process as an offshoot of these companies' operations.
He said, for instance, many of the manufacturing companies have high demand for necessary tools and equipment
and other logistics that will redound to inclusive growth.
"Whereas kung nagtatanim at nagproproduce ka lang ng banana, what you earn is from export, plus only those
people (directly involved in the production) can benefit," he said.
"That's one of the best efforts of our investment system in the city. In that way, maraming tao ang ma-eemploy," he
added.
Meanwhile, construction industry comes the fifth highest, registering an employment forecast of 86,880 jobs in 2014;
89,200 jobs in 2015; and 91,530 jobs in 2016.
Suyao also said that the region is still recouping in terms of employment rate after Typhoon Pablo wrecked havoc the
region in December 2012, toppling its top job generator -- agriculture.

Despite the calamities, the labor official still cited Davao as among the most resilient regions in Mindanao.
Based on the data released by National Statistics Office (NSO), the employment rate in Northern Mindanao was
down by 1.4 from 94.4 percent in January 2013 to 93 percent in January 2014. The employment rate in
Soccsksargen, meanwhile, inched up a bit to 96 percent as of January 2014 as compared to 95.2 percent in the
same period last year.
The Davao Region was only down by 0.1 percent or 93.6 percent as of January this year as compared to 93.7
percent in the same period last year.
It sustained its employment rate at 93.7 percent in January 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012.
Davao Region's underemployment rate, defined as the number of employees who are unsatisfied with their current
jobs, was reported at 19.7 percent as of January 2014, lower than the 21.1 percent registered in the same period in
2013.
However, the 2013 and 2014 underemployment rates in the region were still much higher as against in January 2012
figure with 15 percent.
Based on the Project JobsFit, Dole 11 listed five more emerging industries that are potentially huge job generators in
the region. These are real estate and renting; mining and quarrying; fishing; health and social work; and financial
intermediation.
"All of these industries are project to deliver a total of 209,400 jobs in 2013 and expected to rise to 250,875 jobs in
2016 or about 20 percent increase employments," it said.
The unemployment and underemployment rates were affected by environmental factors, including typhoon Pablo and
the low pressure areas that dumped rain and created devastation floods.
Historically, Suyao added unemployment rate usually spikes by April, as more graduates will be joining the supply
side hunting for jobs.
With the holding of job fairs, Suyao added Dole 11 can improve the employment rate.
"Mag-iimprove na naman siya kahit papano pagdating ng third quarter," he said.
There are three major job fair events that Dole spearheads annually, including the Labor Day Job Fair on May 1. The
two others are Independence Day (Kalayaan) Job Fair on June 12 and the Dole anniversary Job Fair on December 8.
Among the three, Labor Day Job Fair is the biggest, with more than 30,000 job openings for domestic and abroad.
With the obvious lack, he said Philippines is working with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nation (Asean) through sharing of best practices as to how to significantly improve the labor force.
"It (jobs mismatch) contributes major to the unemployment problem, if the industries could not hire the students
because the skills that they need really are not with the students or graduates. There's really a ballooning problem of
unemployment," he added.
"That's why, we have Tesda as a bridge, from school to them, para ma-enhance ang employability. Even the out-ofschool-youth pinapasok sa Tesda," he said.

The implementation of the K to 12 is also seen to improve labor force, what with the inclusion of two years in high
school that seeks to expose students in vocational courses.

Graduates joining the labor force for the first time may have to brace themselves, for the road to
professional success in the real world may not be the rose garden they have been expecting all
along.

In the highly-competitive labor market, getting a degree is no longer an assurance to landing a job,
especially with high rates of unemployment and underemployment staining the economic landscape.
While thousands of jobs are being generated to mitigate this problem, there is a parallel issue in the
form of a mismatch between business demands and existing talent pool.
According to the January 2014 Labor Force Survey, the Philippines registered an unemployment
rate of 7.5 percent, while underemployment was pegged at 19.5 percent.
The Global Employment Trends report of the International Labor Organization published in 2014 also
revealed that the Philippines registered an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent in 2013, the highest
unemployment rate among members the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN.
Job-skill mismatch
Dona May Nepomuceno, 24, had her plans all laid out when she took Industrial Engineering in
college: work in an esteemed manufacturing firm and earn good that would allow her to live
comfortably.
But fate took its own course.
Much of what she planned to do in the didn't actually actually out except for the money part, which
prompted the shift from manufacturing to information technology. She now works as a software
engineer in a business process outsourcing company in Metro Manila.
Life forces us to be practical The reason why we study hard is for us to land a good job the kind
that would allow us to live comfortably.
Unfortunately, I was not able to get that in the field that I have originally studied for, Nepomuceno
said.

Thousands of young professionals are in the same boat as Nepomuceno who lives the reality of a
job-skill mismatch.
Transitioning from a specific course in school to a totally different field is made possible by in-house
training, were and the willing of a job seeker to go with the flow is often triggered by a need for better
pay and non-wage benefits apart from a merit-based progress in the corporate ladder, Nepomuceno
noted.
Basic skills, specialization
Labor mismatch impacts the economy in such a way that the time spent pursuing a particular course
in college becomes a futile exercise for the student and brings about an oversupply of talents to a
certain profession, said Alvin Ng, economist at University of Santo Tomas.
"A mismatch occurs because of the failure to generate the sufficient number of people needed by the
economy," he said.
The problem is cultural mindset, of the need to become a professional with specialized skills
regardless if there is an existing demand in the economy or none, he noted.
A manifestation of this mismatch is the oversupply of nursing graduates in the country.
Earlier reports have cited the alleged "exploitation" of nurses going for on-the-job training (OJT),
citing hospitals hiring registered nurses as OJTs and not as regular employees.
In a 2011 Senate investigation on the issue, Senate health committee chairwoman Pilar Juliana
Cayetano said some OJT nurses were being asked to pay P5,000 to P7,000 for their supposed
training or certification. The rates they pay depend on the hospital and training duration, usually
ranging from six weeks to eight months.
Cayetano noted registered nurses were "constrained" to work as OJTs in hospitals as they are
required to comply with a minimum two-year work experience to be employed abroad.
To mitigate this phenomenon, Ang said the labor force has to strike a balance between individuals
with basic skills and those who posses special skills in certain professions.
The implementation of the K+12 educational system the program meant to align the Philippines
with the global 12-year basic education cycle is "the first right step" to solve labor mismatch, the
economist said.
The assumption is that K+12 finishers can take care of basic jobs that do not need special skills.

But, given the "systemic" and "structural" nature of the issue, it will take years even decades for
the functional nature of the newly introduced education system to gel with the situation and actually
address the issue, Ang noted.
Youth unemployment
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute, The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion
people (2012), showed that young workers continue to suffer from the brunt of labor mismatch with
the demand for low-skill labor gradually falling over time.
Employers will need not just more workers with college degrees, they will need graduates with
training in specific specialties, particularly in scientific and technical fields, the study read.
Youth unemployment has become a global issue as 75 million young people are unemployed
globally, or 38 percent of the worlds unemployed workers. Left unaddressed, this phenomenon
could leave many advanced economies with a lost generation of workers, the study noted.
We conclude that the forces that have caused imbalances in advanced economies in recent years
will grow stronger and that similar mismatches between the skills that workers can offer and what
employers need will appear in developing economies too, it said.
If these trends persist and absent a massive global effort to improve worker skills, they are likely
to do so there will be far too few workers with the advanced skills needed to drive a highproductivity economy and far too few job opportunities for low-skill workers, it added.
Industry-academe partnership
Love Basillote, Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) executive director, sees the need to bridge
job-skill mismatch by fostering a collaboration between the business and education sectors.
Our approach is through industry-academe partnership We are trying to set the expectation to at
least level up and get them to talk, eventually capacitating industries so they are able to take part in
curriculum development, she said.
On that note, PBEd has come up with Higher Education and Productivity Project (HEPP) to solve
the skills gap and mismatch problem by initiating industry-academe partnerships at the national and
regional level.
The initiative is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Philippines.

The move has initiated a parallel review of the Policies, Standards and Guidelines (PSGs) of the
suggested curriculum of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the fields of Management,
Information Technology, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Electronics Engineering.
The industries under review were chosen based on the Key Employment Generators (KEG) and
Emerging Industries (IE) identified by the Department of Labor and Employment. KEG refers to the
industries or sectors with the greatest potential to generate employment, while IEs are the
industrial sectors growing at a rate faster than the economy.
This effort aims to define the relevant competencies that can make entry-level applicants employable
and proficient members of the workforce, Basillote said.
PBEd is set to submit the results of its PSG review to CHED on May 9.
Productive career choices
Filipino workers first need to develop fundamental skills in order to become employable in basic jobs,
before venturing into specific professional specializations, UST's Ang said.
In terms of the demand side, people should know the plan of industries and of the government. This
would make the plan clearer and would let schools adjust which courses to offer, the economist
said.
Basillote also cited the need to have a good labor market information to points the youth towards
productive career choices in the future.
We should invest in training and make sure industries, government, and schools communicate so
that the curriculum is kept relevant, so that we train people with the right skills necessary for the
work force, Basillote added. VS, GMA News

Job Mismatch within the College Graduates of the Philippines What is Job Mismatch?
Introduction This 2012, 700,000 new graduates will be added to the job seekers.
Most of them are nursing, HRM, business and engineering graduates.
Hoping they fall in the white collar jobs. Potential of Job Mismatch in the Philippines
Factors that contribute to the Job Mismatch within college graduates Do not focus on
the most in demand job especially if that job is not your thing How To Prevent Job
Mismatch The study suggest the mapping of HEI's and SUC's programs and

curriculum How To Address Job Mismatch Higher Education Institutions in the

Philippines Human Capital Theory
Credentialism Theory
Job Matching Theory
Technological Change Theory Theoretical Foundations Education Training Institutions
Tendency of the industry to be selective in their hiring practices Attitude of
prospective workers Study the job offer well before you sign a contract. Do not look
on how big the company is, but on how you can perform your job. Apply on a
position where you can learn and grow as a person. Match your preferred industry
according to the degree that you finished and your qualification. Information on
Higher Education System
Private Higher Education Institutions
Public Higher Education Institutions THANK YOU
for LISTENING