Only a few of the graduates of education and teacher-training courses can expect to be hired in teaching positions. While the public school system is consistently short on teachers, budget constraints limit the number of teaching positions being offered. The last time a substantial number of teaching positions was opened was in 2004. A total of 10,000 teaching positions were made available for entry-level teachers. If the same was offered next school year 2006-2007, only 11 percent of the 90,259 graduates can be hired.

The others may try their luck with the contractual teaching positions offered by cities and municipalities. For example, the Quezon City government hires 400 contractual teachers per school year. The rest may have to wait for vacancies opened up by retiring teachers or those going abroad.

Most graduates of medical and allied courses aim to work abroad. They usually stay for a few years just enough to gain experience and boost their chances of overseas employment. Thus, even if there are more graduates than new jobs available, the country experiences an extreme shortage of health professionals, especially in the provinces.

Prospects for graduates of engineering and information technology courses, if they plan to work locally, are also not too good. Employment in the industry sector registered a negative growth of 95,000, from 4.977 million in January 2005 to 4.882 million this year.

CHED data from 1990 to 2003 shows a consistent growth in the number of business administration graduates yearly – from 73,021 in 1990 to 110,870 in 2003. This field has consistently been the topnotcher in terms of the number of graduates by discipline group – consistently producing more than 20 percent of all graduates by course annually.

Since all corporations whether in the service or industry sectors involve business administration, prospects for job openings for graduates of business administration and related courses are better. Added to this, dreams of climbing the corporate ladder, earning fat salaries, and rising from poverty are common among the youth.

These may be the reasons why courses training students to it manage to attract the greatest number of students in universities and colleges yearly. The country’s colleges and universities – mostly private – encourage this trend as it means more enrollment and therefore bigger profits for schools.

Consequently, this field yields the most graduates by discipline group yearly.

On the other hand, the country’s growing number of graduates forces them to crowd each other out in the few available jobs for those without work experience. The relatively few graduates of private schools with good English proficiency, whether graduates of business administration or engineering, end up as call center agents. But generally, graduates end up searching for employment in an economy that has little space for the likes of them.

The over-all character of the economy is the reason behind the lack of decent work opportunities in the country. The mismatch between the jobs available in the market and the graduates produced by the universities and colleges is part and parcel of this and is thus a factor that cannot be overlooked.

This is one of the reasons behind the sad fact that for many of our country’s young people, the much-anticipated graduation from college all too soon turns into a source of deep frustration. Most of those who graduate from college in the Philippines yearly simply have nowhere to go. (Bulatlat.com)

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