Why many fresh college grads don't get hired, according to survey of managers

[siopao1984]

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link to article:
Why many fresh college grads don't get hired, according to survey of managers | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

Four of ten fresh graduates and young jobseekers are not hired because they lack three key qualities—critical thinking, initiative, and effective communication skills—according to the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) at a job fair in Makati on Friday.

“Each industry would have some sort of minimum standard. Not having met that is proof that the students don’t meet that standard. The

study

showed that 40 percent of fresh graduates do not immediately get hired because of the deficiencies in these soft competencies,”

PMAP

director for academe-industry linkages Gigi Alcasid shared with GMA News Online in an exclusive interview.

The study she cites was by PMAP done two years ago and the findings have since been shared with universities and colleges and uploaded to YouTube.

Alcasid said firms across various industries consider critical thinking, initiative and effective communication skills as “soft competencies” jobseekers must possess to get hired.

“Kasi ’yung 40 percent, kasama na rin doon ‘yung hindi fresh graduates, nasa probationary status at nag-fail,” Alcasid said.

She described critical thinking as the ability to solve actual workplace problems usually in multi-tasking situations and priority challenges. She added that initiative is being able to not wait to be told what to do, while effective communication as competence in the language of business.

“It’s common knowledge that the industry that hires most now are the BPO, which have high standards and have had to go outside Metro Manila just to fill the bench,” she noted.

Alcasid had frank advice for students and their parents:

“Seryosohin nila ‘yung pag-aaral nila.

As early as possible,

malaman nila yung mga kakulangan

(sa competencies)

at ‘yung mga magulang maintindihan nila na hindi lang kung ano ‘yung uso na kurso.

At the end of the day,

kung wala ‘yung puso ng bata doon

(sa

course

)

hindi siya mag

-excel.”

She said people managers look for indicators like involvement in extra curricular activities and involvement in situations where students get to develop their soft competencies.

According to

estimates

by the National Statistics Office (NSO), 42 percent of the 2.8 million unemployed in 2011 were college graduates and undergraduates, while 50.4 percent of the unemployed were 15 - 24 years old.

The Commission on Higher Education estimates that roughly 517,000 new college graduates join the labor force every year. This figure is cited in the Project JobsFit

study

of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in 2009 wherein five industries are identified as key employment generators or sources of job vacancies: cyberservices; hotels and restaurants; construction; health and wellness; and aviation.

These sectors have among the mosty number of hard-to-fill occupations, which refers "to job vacancies for which an establishment has encountered difficulties in managing the recruitment process for reasons such as no applicants, applicant’s lack of experience, skill or license,
preference for working abroad, seeking higher salary or problem with location and other reasons."

New World Bank study

Only last Thursday, the World Bank released its “Putting Higher Education to Work”

report

which urged the Philippines and other lower middle income countries of East Asia to, among others, invest in developing skills of students.

WB economists Emanuela di Gropello and Prateek Tandon said countries’ limited resources must be spent smartly on activities that directly result in higher returns such as improving labor market information and availability thereof, as well as linkages with industry and other stakeholders.

Di Gropello also called for more scholarships and study loans to enable more students to go to higher education. She suggested that universities and colleges offer their services to industries on matters like training of employees and

research

that address companies’ and communities’ needs.

— ELR/HS, GMA News

We welcome healthy discussions and friendly debate! Please click report to alert mods of a comment that may be abusive or threatening.

[doniski]

critical thinking, initiative, and effective communication skills.... true. although critical thinking and communication skills can be trained. what is difficult to look for now is common sense

[chris_bern]

critical thinking, initiative and effective communication? makita man ni nila nga requirements sa mga kasagaran nga naa na experience sa trabaho...

maybe it would be fair pa unta na ang fresh grads daghang curricular activities na giapilan sauna sa estudyante pa sya kay para makita jud na dili lang sya pang academic but also energetic and resourceful.

[stanlee climbfall]

All the key qualities mentioned were true. Based on exp coz before dli jd ko sociable nga tawo. I could still rmembr da 1st tym i applied for a job; grabe jd kau aqng kakulba sa initial intrvw so didto rapud ko kutob.lol
Sa maanad raka cge tubag sa mga intrvws kay balik2 rman pangutana.

[ashleytorres]

I guess the root of this insufficiency was the poor quality of education. We can't put all the blame to the freshly grads because it's not their fault at all. So I suggest that the government give attention to this matter and think of the possible solution. I know that the youngster will cooperate, 'cos they all know that it's about their future.

[bim27142]

para makita jud na dili lang sya pang academic but also energetic and resourceful.

once outside in the real word, everything will change!

ang critical jud kaayo is ang first job nimo, dha ka magsugod og pili how you walk and build on your professional career...

[chris_bern]

I guess the root of this insufficiency was the poor quality of education. We can't put all the blame to the freshly grads because it's not their fault at all. So I suggest that the government give attention to this matter and think of the possible solution. I know that the youngster will cooperate, 'cos they all know that it's about their future.

diskarte na lang man ni sa aplikante na fresh grad... if you rely always on the government you might just end up having disappointments because our government is not good enough to handle almost any basic needs that our Filipino's need..

[iphone]

i believe in diskarte mga bro... i've been there before and all i can say: always keep moving coz if you don't you will end up for nothing... no one will win if you don't survive mga bro... so, don't waste your time for nothing always go forward guyz...

[iphone]

up for today guyz!

[Klave]

I wouldn't blame nor expect the government to do anything significantly good.
Also, it is really up to the person if they are going to give up on job hunting.
It is a fact that most of the jobless are not putting a daily effort in looking for a job.