Tech-voc vs college?

It’s graduation time and I have noticed a lot of Facebook posts about happy graduates. Also, parents of high schoolers who are worried about their children passing their college entrance examinations. Some now take the exams in more than one school to be sure. Then there are those who are wondering if they can afford the high cost of college education.

Not everyone should go to college. This comes from an accidental college graduate. I joined ABS-CBN as a cub reporter the summer I was supposed to be in fourth year college. It was supposed to just be a summer job but when June came around, I decided to stay on the job.

My father was unhappy about my decision. I told him that my uncle, his youngest brother, a well-known journalist at the time, didn’t finish college. Some of the best editors and reporters I worked with were also college drop-outs. Actually, I got the impression they looked down on college graduates in the newsrooms. I finally got my degree after martial law closed down ABS-CBN because I was jobless with nothing to do.

Getting a college degree is expected in this country. But we should recognize that some people will most likely have a more fruitful life in the technical vocational areas.

We had it right some decades ago with the national college entrance examination. NCEE screened high school graduates who are capable of meeting the challenges of college from those who will be better off learning a technical or vocational skill.

I recall that some folks called the NCEE elitist. That’s because NCEE provides an advantage for those who had the benefit of good elementary and high school education, most likely in a private school. The PISA test bared the shameful failure of the government to provide a proper public education, outside of the science high schools managed by the Department of Science or some LGUs, not DepEd.

There are diploma mill colleges that prey on the dreams of low-income parents to get a college education for their children. The poor parents sell their carabaos to pay for tuition only to find out that they have been victimized by a scam.

The high failure rates in professional licensure examinations for nurses and teachers show the uselessness of the college education they got. The bar examination has an atrocious failure rate. Only one out of five pass in most years, but folks still insist being a lawyer is their best bet for a good life.

It is unfortunate that our society looks down on those who fail to get a college degree. In the US, it isn’t that much of a problem. Not too long ago, some tech moguls were urging the best high school graduates to skip college and work for them. Indeed, some of the richest tech moguls like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were college dropouts. Both dropped out of Harvard because they felt they had better things to do.

In recent years, many US college graduates have been wondering if their big college loans were worth it. Those who studied courses to work for Silicon Valley tech firms are now finding it difficult to get jobs.

For a while, tech companies were on a hiring binge. But post pandemic, the tech industry unloaded employees so that new graduates were competing for less vacancies against more experienced laid off workers.

Many Filipino parents invest life savings sending their children to college hoping they can get a good paying white-collar job in Makati or even migrate to the land of milk and honey. Of course many are disappointed. Even the best graduates of some of our best schools find it difficult to land a good entry level job in the US.

Actually, a Pinoy who wants to migrate to the US and be able to earn a living right away must first learn a skill in high demand that pays well. We are talking about plumbers, electricians and mechanics. Also, barbers or beauty salon stylists. Teachers are always needed but they have to be better than our average public school teachers here.  One of my daughters is a public school teacher in California and she also has a master’s degree from a local university there.

Our K-12 program was geared to separate those who will go tech-voc and those who will go to college. But DepEd’s failure to properly run the senior high school level by teaching marketable skills nullified the good intentions of the K-12 program.

We have industries crying out for skilled workers but can’t get any. The BPO industry can only hire one or two out of 10 applicants. Sometimes, they try to train some of the early rejects out of desperation for workers.

TESDA can do more but it is a typical government agency more interested in regulating than training. What we need are industry sponsored OJT programs like what Robert Coyuito has in his Audi operations. They train mechanics in Germany for world class skills.

Same thing with Toyota. I have met some of the people Toyota sent to Japan for training and later fielded in their local dealers. When I was with an advertising agency, we had a client that trained welders that were in high demand then and probably still are now.

Our laws should allow apprenticeship programs. We need to adopt the dual tech system of Germany. Not all high school graduates in Germany go to college. And someone who took the technical vocational route could still end up in upper management.

We need to change our attitude. A college diploma isn’t a passport to a good life. Choose a skill in high demand and interesting to you. That’s how to keep your parents from having to sell the family’s carabao to finance your education.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.