Why many fresh college grads don't get hired, according to survey of managers
EARL VICTOR L. ROSERO, GMA NewsMarch 3, 2012 10:53pm
Four of ten fresh graduates and young jobseekers are not hired because they lack three key qualities—critical thinking, initiative, and effective communication skills—according to the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) at a job fair in Makati on Friday. “Each industry would have some sort of minimum standard. Not having met that is proof that the students don’t meet that standard. The study showed that 40 percent of fresh graduates do not immediately get hired because of the deficiencies in these soft competencies,” PMAPdirector for academe-industry linkages Gigi Alcasid shared with GMA News Online in an exclusive interview.
The study she cites was by PMAP done two years ago and the findings have since been shared with universities and colleges and uploaded to YouTube. Alcasid said firms across various industries consider critical thinking, initiative and effective communication skills as “soft competencies” jobseekers must possess to get hired. “Kasi ’yung 40 percent, kasama na rin doon ‘yung hindi fresh graduates, nasa probationary status at nag-fail,” Alcasid said. She described critical thinking as the ability to solve actual workplace problems usually in multi-tasking situations and priority challenges. She added that initiative is being able to not wait to be told what to do, while effective communication as competence in the language of business. “It’s common knowledge that the industry that hires most now are the BPO, which have high standards and have had to go outside Metro Manila just to fill the bench,” she noted. Alcasid had frank advice for students and their parents: “Seryosohin nila ‘yung pag-aaral nila. As early as possible, malaman nila yung mga kakulangan (sa competencies) at ‘yung mga magulang maintindihan nila na hindi lang kung ano ‘yung uso na