Human Capital Requirements of the Electrical Businesses

Abstract

Philippine Education in its response to Asian regionalism and globalization fully implemented the K-12 program in 2016 introducing 2 years of senior high school after the existing 4 years of junior high school. The Department of Education (DepEd) of the Philippines emphasizes that the Senior High School (SHS) Program offers a lot of benefits to Philippine education. One of which is that graduates of the Senior High School Program especially the Technical Vocational and Livelihood (TVL) track will be readily employable. This research study aimed to survey the human resource needs of the Electrical Industries in Region 1 and was compared to the curriculum guide used by the electrical courses of the Senior High School of the Department of Education. This is to examine if the electrical courses being offered by the Department of Education do match the human resource needs of the Electrical Industries in the Region. The problems brought about by the mismatch between skills and job hinders development. Students may end up jobless when they graduate because the skills they learned may not be the same skills needed by the industries. Industries may experience a shortage of skilled workers to perform different tasks in the workplace. Failure to determine this problem will affect not only the economy of the region but also the whole nation in general. The study is simple as it may be seen, could benefit the students and the electrical industries in Region 1 in particular. This study will provide relevant information intended to help school administrators to design a curriculum that will meet the needs of the industries. This will help students decide on what course to take to ensure future employment. The industries will have the opportunity to open up their human resources needs to make sure that their needed skills will be catered to by the schools. Most of the electrical companies in Region 1 are engaged in general construction and general engineering services. The human resource needs of the companies are skilled employees who possess the competence to the job demanded in the companies. Indeed, there are job vacancies in the electrical companies in Region 1. However, the companies are hesitant to hire newly graduated SHS applicants because of the impression that said applicants do not possess the competencies required by the jobs in the companies. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) installation for example ranked second in the list of competencies needed by the companies is not included in the curriculum of the electrical course in the SHS. Few companies would accept newly graduates of the SHS however, they will not be treated the same as the regular employees. They will be treated as an apprentice and will receive a lower salary. They will not be assigned to do delicate works. There are several competencies needed by the companies that are not offered in the electrical courses of the SHS based on the curriculum guide of DepEd. This study serves as a guide in formulating a curriculum that will cater to the human resource needs of the electrical industries in Region 1. It is expected that this research study will bring closer coordination between the Schools and the Industries to avoid skill-job mismatch.