MANILA, Philippines — Philippine-based firms are now open to hiring graduates of K-12 but only fewer work opportunities remain open, a survey by the Philippine Business for Education (PBed) showed.
PBEd reported in its 2024 Jobs Outlook for K-12 Graduates Study that there is an increasing willingness among employers to hire K-12 graduates.
According to the survey, which involved 299 participants, four out of five companies expressed readiness to hire Senior High School (SHS) graduates.
This marks an improvement from a similar survey conducted in 2018, which revealed that only three out of five companies were willing to hire graduates from the curriculum that extended secondary education by two years.
However, 13.4 percent of employers are “not keen on hiring” K-12 graduates.
The survey also disclosed that 88 percent of micro, medium, and small enterprises (MSMEs) and 78 percent of large companies are willing to hire K-12 graduates.
According to PBEd, during the survey period, 42 percent of MSMEs and 63 percent of large companies already had K-12 graduates among their employees.
However, only 27 percent of entry level jobs in 2024 were expected to be filled by SHS graduates as employers prefer applicants who are college degree holders, it said. This only means a few work opportunities are open for applicants who finished SHS compared to applicants who finished an undergraduate degree.
Moreover, the business organization has called on employers to offer “work-based training” to prepare SHS graduates for their transition into the workforce to make sure that the student’s skills meet the needs of the industry.
“More businesses should actively engage in training K to 12 students by offering work-based training opportunities to ensure that the skills acquired by trainees meet the needs of the industry and address the persistent jobs-skills mismatch problem,” PBEd said.
