By Joel T. Fagsao

Close to an estimated 450,000 college students are expected to receive their diplomas in colleges nationwide.  After the party is over, thousands would pound the streets to search for available jobs.    This is the year in and year out scene that have many of us getting worried.  The fear is that majority of today’s graduates will join the ranks of the unemployed.  At present the call center industry (Business Process Outsourcing) industry is the most aggressive in terms of job recruitment.  Still, the industry can only absorb so much, besides many still lack the necessary skills to make it as a call center agent.  The irony is that the minimum requirement for entry as a call center agent is completion of 72 units or an equivalent of two years in college. 

The thing with our educational system is that our education planners have tried every conceivable plan that their creative minds could come up with, still we have yet to see brighter days ahead.   First, there is a mismatch of what the job market wants in relation to the kind of training that our students get.  With this, there is a need for constant consultations and establishment of a feed back mechanism among the stakeholders.  The academic institutions may find it enlightening that there are certain courses that make up a degree –that are no longer what the industries need.    It is thus important for industries and the academe to get their heads together to work on adjustments in the curriculum and avoid a mismatch of skills.  True, the Commission on Higher Education engages the services of industry experts to craft a curriculum.  Still, there is also a need to focus on the goings on in the communities where these schools operate.  At most, courses are offered in areas where the absorption capacity of the surrounding community is nil.  The result, graduates would flock to the urban areas and compete with jobseekers there. 

In a recent statement, Vice Presidential candidate Manuel Roxas that only about 250,000 Filipinos are absorbed into overseas jobs annually.   So if that is the current trend, the ranks of the unemployed continue to balloon.  

I started with computer literacy courses and added computer technician, secretarial and programming courses at Xijen Institute of Technology, (now Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc.)  By offering these courses, I was only looking to fill the needs of Mountain Province.   In the late 90’s operating computers and things related to computers was still in its infancy stage in Mountain Province.   Indeed there is this felt need as offices are hesitant to purchase computers unless employees are trained.  The municipalities of Tadian, Paracelis sent their staff for training at Xijen (sponsored by the Civil Service Commission) and the results are positive.   Soon college students, non-government organizations and professionals followed suit.

First there is this need for computer literacy, an academic institution develops the curriculum and offers the course to the community, the community stakeholders enroll in the program.  The need is then fulfilled.  Sometimes, academic institutions across the nation forget to explore the needs of their host communities often resulting into courses offered that could not be applied in the communities they serve.    At Xijen College we did a careful study of the courses that we offer.  Aside from doing the basic studies (research) we talk to stakeholders and get their inputs.  I have always put a premium on the inputs of stakeholders. 

Basically, even if the course is unpopular but if we believe that it will fulfill the needs of the province in the coming years, we were willing to offer it.  Take for example, the BS Entrepreneurship course.  I admit it is not a popular course at the moment but I am confident, the graduates of this course will trail blaze the economic scene in Mountain Province in the coming years.  There are a lot of opportunities in Mountain Province for those with an entrepreneurial mind set.  This is precisely why the BS Entrepreneurship course is being offered.  The course aims to prove that setting up your own business ventures would help reverse the unemployment trend.     The college also offered the course BS Education-Major in Filipino after we found that there is a dearth of teachers in secondary schools in the province who majored in Filipino.  The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology is also being offered to encourage graduates to develop Mountain Province as an information technology service provider.  Opportunities for software development, web page design and maintenance, database management will continue through the years.  In Mountain Province alone, local government units should start looking into streamlining their operations through computerization.  But who is going to do the job?  Graduates of BSIT will just have to face this challenge.   Local government units should now start with the creation of an Information Technology position to do the task of computerization of operations. 

In the end, it takes the whole community, the leaders, the academe, the government and non government agencies, the business sector and even the religious sector shall work hand in hand to identify their community’s development needs.   Through consultations and effective planning needs are identified and filled.  Really there is no place for an academic institution who seeks to remain ensconced in its own four walls.