Saturday, November 26, 2011

Where Are The Jobs?

I had a very interesting conversation with one of the General Manager of a well-known job portal some time ago. The discussion we had centered on the jobs and why the Philippines has millions of people who are unemployed and underemployed.

She had a very interesting point made. If there are no jobs, why do companies keep on posting job vacancies? If there are no jobs, why do major dailies, online job portals are continuing to make money? If there are no job openings, why are schools, government agencies and other organizations are continuing to hold job fairs?

The point she wanted to make was simple. There are thousands of job opportunities out there but what are lacking are the technical and behavioral skills needed by the applicants to effectively do the jobs.

What happened with our educational system that it doesn't answer the needs of companies? Why are our graduates not employable here in the Philippines? They need to go abroad to look for better opportunities and yet, they are willing to get jobs that are far beneath their educational attainment. Who is at fault?

Answering these questions would entail a lengthy debate on the state of the educational system, the quality of graduates Philippine colleges and universities are producing and the unrealistic expectations of new graduates and their parents.

The top universities of the Philippines went down a couple of notches in the recent study published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/53635/philippine-universities-out-of-world%E2%80%99s-top-300).

Several experts have argued that the private sector and the government must work hand-in-hand to answer the looming employment problem in the country. The Philippines has become, more recently, a factory of nursing graduates.

http://www.centives.net/S/2011/where-are-the-jobs-being-created/
There are several booming industries that can provide employment. The government must be able to take advantage of this industries and provide enough support and incentives to encourage small and medium scale businesses to venture into these areas.

In a recent article, also in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, they mentioned that we have already taken India as the outsourcing capital in the world for voice. However, India still accounts for more outsourced services. Aside from voice support, the Philippines can also offer more specialized services; such as in accounting, animation and payroll systems.

A comprehensive approach is needed to enable the public to realize the benefits of these possible opportunities and the private enterprise to be encourage to put-up these kinds of businesses here.

Let us understand, that not all can be employed as nurses. And not everyone are qualified to work in customer support that handles voice calls.

Green technology is also fast becoming a new industry. There are companies who have already embraced the green movement. The green companies are providing employment and livelihood to a lot of people. The government should also help these companies by offering tax breaks, incentives or assist in research and development.

What the government can do is to fast-track its plan to lessen the number of steps needed to set-up the business. A Singaporean can roughly take 24 hours to register and have his own business. In our country, it takes an average of about 2-4 weeks, sometimes even longer.


Meanwhile, the investment of the businessman is stuck. He can not hire immediately nor he can not set-up shop unless all the documents have been approved.

In the end, providing employment to thousands of Filipinos does not lie on one entity alone. The government and the private sector must help in providing framework to help one another. The government can not do it alone nor companies handle everything without the assistance from the local and national government.

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