MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) launched FutureYou.ph, an online career exploration portal that aims to address the lack of information on the right job opportunities for Filipino students and graduates.
The Philippines currently has the highest unemployment rate in Southeast Asia.
The country has an average of 2.8 million people who have been unemployed for the past 2 years. Majority of those are in the 15-24 age group followed by those aged 24-30, composing 48% and 30% of the unemployed in the country, respectively.
Of the total unemployed, 44% have either graduated or reached high school, and 34% have reached or graduated from college.
The jobs mismatch is one of the causes of high unemployment in the Philippines. Many students do not know what jobs are in demand–there are industries that have too many applicants but do not have sufficient career offers, while there are others that do offer careers, but do not have enough applicants.
There is an oversupply of talent—there are industries that offer jobs but have no applicants, and vice versa. This is partly caused by students not having enough information on where the job opportunities lie.
Portal
“FutureYou.ph provides complete and up-to-date labor market and higher education information,” said Love Basillote, Executive Director of PBEd.
“It will collect and organize information such as degree programs, and licensure exams performances of schools, and jobs that are currently in demand.”
There are three essential steps for users of the portal: browse jobs, pick a course, and find the appropriate school for that course.
Through this portal, students will get information on in demand jobs and emerging industries, qualifications and skills required for those jobs, and colleges and universities offer those qualifications.
“By bridging the information gap, this portal will also help parents make the best decisions for their children, as well as aid companies to find the right employees,” she added.
Life Lessons
FutureYou.ph was officially launched to a student audience number almost 300. In line with the launch of the portal was a program featuring speakers from various professions such as engineering and education.
The speakers gave short talks to create awareness of what kinds of jobs and careers are available to students after they graduate, as well as to inspire them to carefully consider what career choices they will eventually make.
Futureyou.ph plans to roll out the speaker-series, called “Futureyou.ph’s Life Lessons,” to provinces soon in order to reach students in those areas.
FutureYou.ph is a project of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), a non-government organization. The website was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Philippines as part of the Higher Education and Productivity Project.