UNEMPLOYMENT prevails because of a one-track mindset graduates tend to have after years of schooling, a UST official said.
“After school, graduates tend to think about being employed by a company, that’s the common mindset most have,” Office of Alumni Relations head Prof. Evelyn Songco said.
Getting a job has become tougher for fresh graduates “because (this) mindset is working against them.”
Since everybody wants to be employed amid the economic slowdown, many will find themselves left with few opportunities, Songco said.
Thomasian graduates should change their outlook and consider other options, like entrepreneurship, she said.
“Most of us want to be employed according to what we have finished. Why not consider self-employment?” Songco asked.
“This financial crisis is an opportunity for graduates to be creative and more enterprising,” she said. “Graduates are called to be more creative, to re-make the industry and not just to be a part of it.”
Asked whether the problem is one of job mismatch or the gap between university training and industry requirements, Songco said that “it does exist.”
“We call it ‘educational wastage.’ It is when you have not applied the skills you’ve earned and honed while you were in college,” she added.
But to have a job that does not match one’s educational attainment is not to be unemployed, Songco clarified.
Picky graduates?
Coming from an esteemed institution, Thomasian graduates are preferred by industries for being “well-balanced individuals who come from a microcosm of Philippine society,” Songco said.
“Here in UST we have all kinds of people here from different walks of life. That’s why when Thomasians go out, they can easily mingle and blend with everybody,” she said.
But whatever institutional upbringing UST graduates undergo is being put to test whenever they think of applying for blue-collar jobs.
During the three-day job affair last Feb. 11 to 13, one company – Monark Equipment Corp. opened several job opportunities for welders, cadet engineers, project engineers, human resource specialist, and accountants. There were not enough applicants for these positions.
The welder position at the time is only for “pooling’ which means that applicants will only be considered once a vacancy arises.
“Majority of our applicants from UST came from Engineering but most of them applied for cadet engineers (not welders),” Kris Cabibihan, staff of the Monark human resources department, said in a phone interview.
Cadet engineers are fresh graduates who are willing to be trained, usually assisting project engineers.
For Songco, aversion to blue-collare jobs is a “cultural dictate.”
“Filipino graduates are not that culturally open to blue-collar jobs because of the natural mindset they have,” she said. “‘I’m going to study for four years then I’ll just end up with a blue-collar job?’”
She reminded Thomasians that blue-collar jobs are fine, and that sometimes, graduates do have “to start from scratch.”
Employment measures
As the job placement and employment office of the University, the Office for Alumni Relations holds job fairs annually in partnership with top companies to help graduates and alumni find jobs.
For the recent fair, companies evaluated the event as “good” based on seven criteria: scheduling, venue, parking, booth and set-up, security, secretariat / volunteers, and food, applicable only to those who availed of themselves.
In addition to the yearly event, the office also distributes the “Alumni Starter and Survival Kit,” which contains job postings and guidelines for graduate studies in UST.
The kit, accessible at the website of the office, also details procedures for acquiring licenses and permits from the Department of Trade and Industry, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Social Security System (SSS).
The latest addition to the University’s job placement efforts is the Fresh Graduate Bio Data.
Graduating students are encouraged to fill up a bio-data to be disclosed to companies depending on the graduate’s preferences.
Hiring anxiety
Although steps have been taken to help Thomasians land jobs, many fresh graduates still find it hard to search for work.
Mark Arce, a journalism graduate, said he knew about the graduate bio-data but doubted if the job fair was beneficial.
“They (administrators) told us even before graduation about the fresh graduate bio-data, but I didn’t have the time to fill-up, (I was) too busy looking for a job,” Arce said. I passed a resume at the job fair, but I [have] yet to receive calls.”
Meanwhile, nursing graduate Kaye Fernandez said she had found “only one job opportunity” compatible with her course, adding that she wasn’t serious about the job fair as she was looking forward to taking the board exam.
