TUCP to youth: Stay out of 5 overpopulated courses

MANILA, Philippines — The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged young Filipinos to stay out of heavily overpopulated college courses if they want to increase their chances of obtaining gainful employment after graduation.

Former Senator Ernesto Herrera, TUCP secretary-general, said the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has already identified at least five such programs: teacher education, nursing, business administration, information technology, and hotel and restaurant management.

“Compared to potential labor market demand, there are now far too many fresh graduates of these five courses, and large numbers of new students still going into these programs,” Herrera said in a statement.

“We’re afraid the huge oversupply of graduates of these programs has made it exceptionally difficult for them to sell their skills to employers,” warned Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development.

He said fresh high school graduates as well as college students who could still shift courses should instead consider going into science and technology as well as agriculture and fisheries — programs which have been singled out by the CHED as underpopulated.

Meanwhile, Herrera urged the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to reconsider their decision to scrap the traditional oath-taking for the 37,513 nursing graduates who passed the July licensure examination.

He said the labor group is getting behind the appeal of the Philippine Nurses Association Inc. (PNA) for the ceremony to proceed as scheduled on Sept. 25.

“Nurses consider the ritual a celebration of their profession. In a way, the observance also honors parents and families who have invested in a big way in the nursing education of their children,” Herrera pointed out.

The PRC earlier cancelled the ceremony at the prodding of the DOLE, which cited the need to conserve public funds.

However, the PNA has countered that government has never spent any money for the formal service to begin with.

The nurses themselves have been paying P600 each to cover the cost of the venue, equipment, and other expenses, with the extra collections going to the Board of Nursing, the PNA said.

TUCP has been pushing for the opening of new foreign labor markets and the creation of local employment programs for the growing number of jobless Filipino nurses. It has also been pressing for the shutdown of substandard schools that it said have been defrauding nursing students and their parents. –InterAksyon.com