MANILA - At least 180,000 local jobs are open for high school graduates, according to the Department of Labor and Employment- Bureau of Local Employment.

Many of these vacancies, posted on PhilJobNet, are permanent, but there are also contractual jobs.

Among the available jobs as of May 2023 are production machine operators, call center agents, production workers, domestic helpers, production helpers, service crew, sales associate professionals, quality assurance inspectors, cashiers, and technical assistants.

DOLE-BLE noted that based on a study, jobs offered to senior high school graduates are limited to blue-collar positions.

"In 2019, the DOLE, with JobStreet, we conducted a study on the employability of senior high school graduates in the Philippines from the employer’s perspective. Research shows that the companies are open to employing SHS graduates, however, the positions are limited to clerical work, for customer service representatives with script, massage therapists, etc,” DOLE’s Alexis Gabriel Habito told the House Committee on Basic Education on Tuesday.

“Employers deem that the current SHS graduates do not have skills for work, hence are only field for rank and file or blue-collar positions. The study recommended improving the SHS curriculum to enhance competency building through subjects that are focused per strand or the intended work,” he added.

DOLE-BLE expressed support for House Bill 7893, which seeks to replace the existing basic K-12 basic education program with K+10+2.

The measure proposes a compulsory one year of Kindergarten education and 10 years of basic education, while the additional two years of post-secondary, pre-university education will be required only for those seeking to proceed to professional degree studies. K+10 graduates who want to pursue technical vocational studies can go to TESDA after graduating from high school.

“The proposed measure on the new K+10+2 curriculum has a capacity to produce graduates who are skilled and trained for in-demand jobs in the labor market, whether they have chosen to continue higher education, skills development, employment or entrepreneurship as their exit,” Habito said.

"May we respectfully recommend including core employability skills in the curriculum so that graduates will have increased employability no matter what exit they opt to pursue,” DOLE-BLE proposed.

House Committee on Basic Education Chairperson Rep. Roman Romulo said the bill will be refined based on the inputs from stakeholders. It will then be submitted for the committee’s consideration.

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