PBED initiative to convince top firms to hire K-12 graduates

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Business for Education (PBED) launched Monday the First Future program that aims to get the country’s top corporations to hire K-12 graduates that have been produced by the ambitious K-12 basic education curriculum reform program of the government.

Ramon del Rosario, chairman of the PBED, said that investing in the K-12 graduates by providing them with employment opportunities and immersion or internships will ensure the human resource development of the country’s workforce pool.

Hecited a study that the average millennial was to go through eight careers in their lifetime.

“By investing in education and employment. we can open to the first of many futures that our youth will embark on and make sure that they are equipped with the skills that will enable them to transition into other futures later on in their lives,” Del Rosario said in the launch ceremonies at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Chito Salazar, PBED president, said that they found the products of the K-12 reform curriculum, which mainly added a two-year senior high school, to already be employable, fulfilling the objective of the K-12 program when it was started in 2013.

“I think the employability is OK. The problem is not employability, but still convincing more corporations to be willing to accept high school grads. Kasi hindi natin nakasanayan yan eh,” Salazar told the STAR.

“Even the fast food industry, before K-12, they require two years of college before they will hire an applicant,” Salazar pointed out.

“So it really is trying to change the mentality: that they (SHS graduates) are employable,” Salazar stressed. 

“What makes First Future unique is that it works on changing the current narrative on K to 12 employability and the private sector’s practice of hiring based on paper credentials,” Del Rosario said.