With graduation just around the corner, some college seniors are already feeling the pressure that awaits them as they go out into the real world and start looking for jobs.

And if statistics released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) are anything to go by, there is indeed a lot to worry about.

In their latest Labor Force Survey, the NSO discovered that new graduates -- 15 to 24 year olds -- make up almost 50 percent of the country’s more than two million unemployed Filipinos.

Data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also point towards a mismatch between the courses students are graduating from, and the jobs currently available in the industry. Almost 100,000 students graduated from teaching courses last year, which is in stark contrast to the less than 400 job vacancies posted on DOLE’s job-generation website phil-jobs.net.

However, Vicente Kilayko, chairman of the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) Academe-Industry Collaboration Committee and director of Drake Beam Morin Philippines, Inc., an outplacement and career management consultancy firm, says things are much more complicated than they seem.

Kilayko says that what is more striking is that for the graduated who do apply for a job, 40 percent are rejected because of a lack in initiative, critical thinking, and communication skills – or behavioral competencies.

“When you look for a job, your prospective employers are essentially looking for two things -- technical competency and behavioral competency. When you go for an interview, people don’t ask you how to derive a formula because the fact that you graduated assures that that is a given. But does the school prepare your behavioral competencies?” he asks.

CHOOSE YOUR PASSION

Kilayko believes that this lack in behavioral competencies and job mismatch stem from the students themselves.

“Many students just want to graduate. Just because you graduated from a course that is ‘in demand’, it doesn’t mean that you will find a job,” Kilayko says. “Oftentimes, young people just want to have fun in college, and they forget that you learn these behavioral competencies from extra-curricular activities. Students should look at these things while still in school. Kapag bata kasi, they can’t think four years ahead.”

Parents and schools also share part of the blame when it comes to the inequality between the number of graduates and the jobs that are actually available to them.

“Many students follow their parents’ advice and take courses that may not necessarily be their passion. They take up courses that will bring them abroad, even if they don’t have the behavioral competency for those courses. The course you take should be your passion, because you will be successful in that endeavor and not because your parents chose it for you,’’ Kilayko adds.

He observes that schools here in the country are run like a business. Rather than offering courses that address the needs of industry, schools offer courses that are popular with students.

“Schools may open up technical courses because the semi-conductor industry really has potential to grow, but not many of the students want to apply. What schools do is open up courses that people want to enroll in but the industry doesn’t necessarily need,” Kilayko cites.

GOVERNMENT HAS TO COME IN

Kilayko believes that the responsibility of addressing the job situation lies on many shoulders -- starting with the government.

“The government has to come in. There has to be an active discussion as to where the country is going. In some countries, they’re trying to predict the needs four years from now, they’re trying to frame the future workforce. That should align and guide the formation of the students,” he says. The demand, Kilayko adds, may come from future industries that will depend on the direction that the country is going to go.

‘’The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) has the bird’s eye view of where the country is going to go. They are the ones equipped to say where the country is going and what the students should be preparing for,” he adds.

PMAP, for its part, strives to relay the needs of the industry to the national government to narrow the gap between graduates and the jobs available to them.

“We survey our industry and ask what the requirements now and feed this back to the National Competitive Council. That’s the role we’re trying to do -- help the nation-building process. We’re trying to address the mismatch by showing graduates that you should address both technical competencies and behavioral competencies,” he says.

SCHOOLS BECOME PROACTIVE

Schools are also undertaking their own initiatives to help address the needs of the industry.

De La Salle University (DLSU), for instance, has a long list of partnerships with industries that help them adjust their own curriculum.

“DLSU regularly conducts curriculum reviews of its academic programs. consults faculty, students, board of advisers, industry leaders, and academic partners here and abroad to keep the curriculum relevant to the changing times,” says Johaness Badillo, operations director of DLSU’s marketing communications office.

Jose C. Alejo, director of DLSU’s Office of Counseling and Career Services, also cites the linkages with companies that are actively in contact with DLSU as far as their demands for La Salle graduates are concerned.

These partnerships between schools and businesses actually work, if on a micro level, and should be taken to the national level.

“Alignments between schools and companies really work because from OJT pa lang, dun na sila nagwo-work sa company. In fact, the training they receive is really specific to the work they will get,” Kilayko says. “That’s a micro example. That should also happen on a macro level.”

Kilayko is optimistic about the chances of resolving the mismatch between the graduates and the jobs available to them. “There is no alternative. We have to move if we want our young people to move forward. We have to look in that direction all the time,” he ends.