Rep. Fidel Nograles, chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Labor is backing President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s idea of introducing short courses to improve the employability of K to 12 graduates.
The proposal comes after President Marcos said that ten years after the K to 12 program’s implementation, it was unable to achieve its goal of improving the employability of graduates.
Mr. Marcos also said he discussed the idea of providing mini-courses of three to six months, or even one-year courses with incoming Education Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara.
According to Nograles, the introduction of short courses could be coordinated with the private sector to ensure that these fulfill industry needs.
As this developed, Nograles also hailed as “good news” the results of the Philippine Business for Education’s (PBEd) 2024 Jobs Outlook Study, which showed that four in five employers or 86.6 percent of employers in in the Philippines are willing to hire K-12 graduates, while 13.4 percent of employers are “not keen on hiring them.”
It also revealed that 88 percent of micro, medium, and small enterprises (MSMEs) and 78 percent of large companies are prepared to hire K-12 graduates.
