(Published in Business Mirror under the Mirror Imgae Column, October 19, 2010)
After four gruelling years in high school, my eldest daughter is, at last, graduating and entering college. I’ve been trying to prod her to take up entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial management because of her knack for selling things and making money since she was four years old. But, surprisingly, she wants to take up fashion design or interior design.
It’s not too bad because she said she wants to put up her own business designing clothes or homes. What is more surprising is that she said the majority of her classmates are taking up arts and hospitality courses—from culinary arts to hotel and restaurant management.
This struck my incurable curiosity, and I did my own surveys. After talking to friends and colleagues, they confirmed that, indeed, kids these days are taking up arts and hospitality courses in college apart, of course, from medical technology and nursing courses. The latter courses are understandably still popular. The Commission on Higher Education (Ched) projects medical and allied courses to still top the list in 2010, growing from 517,253 to 756,778 enrollees, or a 46-percent jump. Despite many reports that there is already an oversupply of nurses in the country and a declining demand for nurses abroad, it’s interesting that many still take up this course, perhaps in the hope to follow in the steps of successful nurses who made it big abroad.
It is notable that hotel and restaurant management is gaining ground, placing second with more than 160,000 enrollees in school year 2008-09. Allied courses in culinary arts are also on the rise with its growing popularity. Moreover, culinary arts is becoming so popular these days that there’s already more than 10 schools that cater to students in this discipline.
These augur well with the global demand for hospitality and culinary professionals, where these are highly sought-after in countries such as Canada and Australia, and even in cruise ships.
Albeit still small in numbers, it is noteworthy that other discipline groups in craft and industrial, and fine and applied arts have experienced double-digit growths in recent years. Testament to this is the steady increase of student enrollees in De La Salle College of St. Benilde, which offers various arts courses from multimedia arts to interior design.
This also bodes well for global and local demand for designers, graphic artists and multimedia arts professionals, which are desired by knowledge-process outsourcing (KPO) companies that do offshore work for American and European firms. KPO refers to the outsourcing of high-value complex tasks and processes, such as design and animation. It has contributed more than a billion dollars in business for the country and growing double digit every year.
What is sad is that the Ched has noted a decline in engineering and technology and information-technology enrollment this year, albeit single digit only. This does not mesh well with the theme of the Philippine Development USA Forum held recently and attended by President Aquino, Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, ICT Commission Chairman Ivan Uy, among other local business leaders. In the forum, the need for a strong science and technology foundation was emphasized as a catalyst for growth. There is a stronger need now to promote science, engineering and technology courses among our youth to avert the possible decline of university enrollees.
Another sad news is that teacher-training enrollment, however, has been declining in the last 10 years by 28 percent, which explains the chronic shortage of teachers in the country. This spells bad news to the proposed 12-year extended basic education in the country. The dearth of teachers is a perennial problem that needs to be addressed…somehow.
****
Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle University. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DLSU College of Business and De La Salle University, its faculty and its administrators.
After four gruelling years in high school, my eldest daughter is, at last, graduating and entering college. I’ve been trying to prod her to take up entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial management because of her knack for selling things and making money since she was four years old. But, surprisingly, she wants to take up fashion design or interior design.
It’s not too bad because she said she wants to put up her own business designing clothes or homes. What is more surprising is that she said the majority of her classmates are taking up arts and hospitality courses—from culinary arts to hotel and restaurant management.
This struck my incurable curiosity, and I did my own surveys. After talking to friends and colleagues, they confirmed that, indeed, kids these days are taking up arts and hospitality courses in college apart, of course, from medical technology and nursing courses. The latter courses are understandably still popular. The Commission on Higher Education (Ched) projects medical and allied courses to still top the list in 2010, growing from 517,253 to 756,778 enrollees, or a 46-percent jump. Despite many reports that there is already an oversupply of nurses in the country and a declining demand for nurses abroad, it’s interesting that many still take up this course, perhaps in the hope to follow in the steps of successful nurses who made it big abroad.
It is notable that hotel and restaurant management is gaining ground, placing second with more than 160,000 enrollees in school year 2008-09. Allied courses in culinary arts are also on the rise with its growing popularity. Moreover, culinary arts is becoming so popular these days that there’s already more than 10 schools that cater to students in this discipline.
These augur well with the global demand for hospitality and culinary professionals, where these are highly sought-after in countries such as Canada and Australia, and even in cruise ships.
Albeit still small in numbers, it is noteworthy that other discipline groups in craft and industrial, and fine and applied arts have experienced double-digit growths in recent years. Testament to this is the steady increase of student enrollees in De La Salle College of St. Benilde, which offers various arts courses from multimedia arts to interior design.
This also bodes well for global and local demand for designers, graphic artists and multimedia arts professionals, which are desired by knowledge-process outsourcing (KPO) companies that do offshore work for American and European firms. KPO refers to the outsourcing of high-value complex tasks and processes, such as design and animation. It has contributed more than a billion dollars in business for the country and growing double digit every year.
What is sad is that the Ched has noted a decline in engineering and technology and information-technology enrollment this year, albeit single digit only. This does not mesh well with the theme of the Philippine Development USA Forum held recently and attended by President Aquino, Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, ICT Commission Chairman Ivan Uy, among other local business leaders. In the forum, the need for a strong science and technology foundation was emphasized as a catalyst for growth. There is a stronger need now to promote science, engineering and technology courses among our youth to avert the possible decline of university enrollees.
Another sad news is that teacher-training enrollment, however, has been declining in the last 10 years by 28 percent, which explains the chronic shortage of teachers in the country. This spells bad news to the proposed 12-year extended basic education in the country. The dearth of teachers is a perennial problem that needs to be addressed…somehow.
****
Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle University. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DLSU College of Business and De La Salle University, its faculty and its administrators.
Comments