EMPLOYABILITY OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Marianne Andales; Zerance Elarcosa; Danessa Sinco; Kyra Ramirez

1.0 Introduction

As the country shifted from the old high school curriculum to K to 12, the

changes have confused both parents and incoming high school students. Thus,

everyone has to keep up with them and hope for better results. Filipinos are

known to be competitive in the international community. However, our current

education system hinders us from becoming even more competitive. The

researchers wanted to know if the Senior High School students will be employed

after graduating with the skills and experiences they had during the school year.

Starting in the 2012-2013 school year, the education system of the

Philippines was enhanced from the ten years of basic education to a 12-year

program through an initiative called the K-12 Education Plan sponsored by the

Department of Education (HubPages Inc. 2016). As we expect senior high school

graduates to move up, the Department of Education claims, with full confidence,

to produce a job-ready batch. In particular, the K12 program in the Philippines

aims to shape the youth for college and prepare them for the job-market (CIIT

Philippines School - Multimedia Arts, Web Design, 3D Animation, Mobile Game

Development, 2018). Most of the students lack adequate information regarding

various careers hence the choices that they make are embedded in their

perception of the ideal job and the subjects they study in secondary (Taylor et al,

2004). Depending on their emerging inclinations, they can take the two extra
years to prepare for college (this is the academic track or college preparatory

SHS) or they can go to the entrepreneurial or technical track to acquire

specialized skills required by companies hiring 18-years old. SHS is not a burden

to parents who could not afford college education. Dr. Rex Capsiple, Education

Specialist of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) 6 said that K-12 will

make the high school graduates employable and economically productive if they

cannot continue to get a college degree (Sunstar, 2015). It is also aims to

enhance learners’ basic skills, produce more competent citizens, and prepare

graduates for lifelong learning and employment. It is designed to provide holistic

education for all Filipino students and to enable graduates to join the workforce

right after Senior high school. It will give students ample time to master basic

academic and non-academic skills that will help them foster employability. Senior

high school students may specialize in academics, arts and design, and technical

vocational livelihood. “K to 12 Program” makes students more employable after

graduation as it introduces different tracks of specialization in preparation for

college or actual employment (Wingatchalian.com, 2016). “The K to 12 programs

has equipped the students with the values, knowledge and skills that the

industries need. Our strong partnership with different industries would also

enable our graduates to strike a balance between theory and practice,” DepEd

said. The K-12 curriculum was designed to produce globally competitive

graduates and also to ensure the employability of Filipino students. Many people

tend to work abroad because some jobs do not exist in the Philippines and also

the training abroad is much better than here. Because of the k-12 program, some
students are forced to work after graduating senior high school than proceeding

to college. The aim of the new education system is to make the students ready

for college and for work or employment. (manilatimes.net, 2014).

To boost the employability and entrepreneurial ability of Filipino graduates,

they need to improve their English communication skills. With the help of the K-

12 curriculum, the students were trained well to have good English

communication skills to do public speaking, interview skills, and conversational

and business communication skills. (japionline.org, 2016). The students will also

undergo work immersion, which may include earn-while-you-learn opportunities,

to provide relevant exposure and actual work experience in their chosen strand

and track. Furthermore, Work Immersion Program is also conceptualized.

Basically, it aims to expose the students to the harsh realities of environment in a

workplace. This exposure also aims to develop and enhance the work ethics and

habits of senior high school students. It would also serve as an assessment tool

on the affectivity of the module designed for the purpose (SHS, 2018). Based on

DepEd Order (DO) no. 30 series 2017 or the Guidelines for Work Immersion,

students are required a minimum of 80 hours of work immersion. The agency

also pointed out that under the law, someone below 18 but older than 15 years

old must spend maximum of 40 hours per week and no more than 8 hours per

day during work immersion. DepEd explained the student’s practical experience

is not limited to 80 hours because schools may have several delivery models

depending on the students’ needs, the school’s capabilities and compliance to

the DO no. 30, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority. With the varying delivery models

that schools may have, they may choose to offer different number of hours (80,

240 and 320), according to DepEd, adding that the schools may design their

delivery model depending on the situation or concern. The DepEd regional office

is in charge of approving the delivery model (Ptvnews.ph, 2018). The program

aims to help develop among the learners life and career skills, and prepare them

to make decisions on post-secondary education or employment. Through

partnership building, DepEd hopes that the Partner Institutions will provide

learners with work immersion opportunities, workplace or hands-on experience

and additional learning resources (Students, 2018).

The K-12 curriculum will also confer TESDA national certificates, graduates

are supposed to be confident at finding decent entry-level jobs right after

graduation. The government will form links with many companies for technical

and vocational courses to enable student gain experience while studying. This

step will help them give the chance to work for the partner companies. DepEd

talks with business groups, local and foreign chambers, commerce and

industries. These groups agreed to change their job requirements to hire k-12

graduates. The k-12 program will produce young entrepreneurs. It will offer

tracks that will train and let students precede into business and other fields

further than employment (k12philippines, 2016). The DepEd shall work with

Commission on Higher Education to execute balanced basic and tertiary

curricular for the competitiveness of Filipino students. Both DepEd and Technical

Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) shall coordinate with

CHED. The DepEd shall consult the other national government agencies and

other stakeholders such as Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and

the Professional Regulations Commission (PCR) to achieve effective better basic

education curriculum (Republic Act 10533, 2013).

Graduating from senior high school is a milestone and a great start for the K-

12 graduates. Since most industries are still coping with the fast-paced trend of

technology, economic growth, and trade, there’s a high demand for skilled

graduates like you. Recently, our country produced the first batch of senior high

school graduates. There are split viewpoints towards the readiness of the K12

finishers’ batch. However, most of the graduates are competitive in showcasing

their skills and talents. Given that before they graduated, senior high schools

have equipped these young professionals with knowledge and job-ready attitude

to join the workforce. Good thing, more industries open up with the huge demand

for jobs for senior high school graduates (CIIT Philippines School - Multimedia

Arts, Web Design, 3D Animation, Mobile Game Development, 2018). On the

survey conducted by JobStreet as part of its 2018 Fresh Graduate Report

showed that only 24 percent of employers using the website are ready to hire the

first batch of graduates of the K-12 program. It also revealed that 35 percent of

employers on JobStreet are not ready to hire K-12 graduates, while 41 percent

are still undecided. The lack of available positions for non-college graduates and

the supposed insufficient work experience of K-12 graduates were the primary

reasons cited by employers who said that they are not ready to accept senior

high school graduates. Those who were undecided said that they are either
evaluating the readiness of their companies or are still finalizing the timeline on

when they would hire K-12 graduates (Jobstreet.com.ph, 2018). Philippine

Business for Education has initiated an affirmative hiring initiative for K-12

graduates to provide opportunities to as many as 600,000 senior high school

graduates who may want to join the workforce. The program aims to enjoin

companies to rethink their hiring policies by opening entry-level position for

senior high school graduates (philstar.com, 2018). “Maybe it’s time for us as

companies to do away with this age-old requirement which says you have to be a

college graduate,” Del Rosario said.

Nonetheless certain gaps have not yet been answered and explored by

related studies were determined. Related studies were able to present how ready

are the senior high school graduates to join the workforce yet did not provide

specific job positions that the students will have considering that they are only

senior high school graduates. The perception of the companies of hiring senior

high school graduates were not tackled on the related research paper as well.

Other studies have not determined the disadvantages of students joining the

workforce. In order to address these gaps, students must know the job that are

offered for senior high school graduates so that they will know the salary rate and

won’t regret working instead of proceeding to college. Knowing the perception of

the companies is also important for the students to know what companies are

accepting senior high school graduates. Determining the disadvantages of joining

the workforce is also important for them to know what are the possible effects of

joining the workforce without a college degree.

 The researcher’s main purpose is to answer posed questions and not to add

more questions, causing confusions. This is gathered through a research- made

structured questionnaire used as a main instrument to gather the needed data in

order to arrive at certain conclusions and meet the objective of the study. The

survey method would be preferable for this study.