The Philippines has a vibrant youth population and produces a considerable number of college graduates every year, however, many graduates struggle to find employment that match their skills or establish their own business. Launched in 2021, the Promoting the EmployAbility and enTrepreneurship of Higher education graduates through innovative WAYs (PATHWAY) project aimed to address this challenge. 

The following presents the project's three-year journey and its impact on its project partners’ students, faculty and staff; and the overall landscape of employability and entrepreneurship in the Philippines. 

 Ateneo De Manila University (AdMU)

The Ateneo Business Resource Center (BRC) staff benefitted directly from the PATHWAY trainings, enhancing their knowledge and expertise in areas critical for student success. New training courses, developed by the upskilled BRC staff, were offered to students from various disciplines. These courses focused on both employability and entrepreneurship, equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the workplace or launch their own ventures.

The project helped connect students and the business sector through initiatives like "100/20 events" and hackathons. These events provided valuable interaction and networking opportunities, allowing students to gain insights from industry professionals and showcase their talents to potential employers. This led to the development of a new service within the Ateneo Business Resource Center. This new service offering further strengthens the BRC's capacity to support students in their career development and entrepreneurial pursuits.

Specifically, AdMU, through the Pathway Project participated in three staff trainings, the World of Work café and the Pathway National Conference; organized student trainings and replication trainings; and successfully conducted a hackathon where students worked on a challenge by Asialink Finance Corporation. The winning team was sponsored by PATHWAY to travel to Valencia (Spain) and attend the Valencia Digital Summit and learn more about how to address major social challenges faced by society and explore the pivotal role of technology and innovation in shaping a brighter future.

Benguet State University (BSU)

With the PATHWAY project, BSU was able to upskill staff from the Office of Student Services, Department of Agribusiness and Department of Entrepreneurship. Students were trained on entrepreneurship, employability, soft skills and emotional intelligence. 

More than 100 of our students had the opportunity to engage with representatives from 20 businesses on July 25, 26, 28 and August 2, 2023. They learned about the skills and attitude requirements of the industries they plan to join in the future.

In BSU’s first ever Hackathon sponsored by PATHWAY, students worked in teams to come with an innovative solution to a challenge proposed by the Health 101 Restoreant and Ecolodge. The winning team was sponsored by PATHWAY to travel to Finland for the Slush Event 2023 and learn more about the stages of establishing a business from the foundation stage to the start-up studio.

Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas (LPU-B)

For LPU-B, the Pathway Project allowed them to upskill our employment center and career center staff with 15 staff benefiting from the PATHWAY trainings. 

Students were trained on Developing Soft Skills with 1,143 students benefiting from the new training courses developed by the staff. This enhanced and improved the career development programs of the university and increased the employability rate of the graduates.

It also strengthened the university’s industry-academe partnerships through the 100/20 events and the hackathons where 18 different business proposals and ideas were created. A new service called Launch Pad was developed and it now serves as a hub for collaboration, providing entrepreneurs with a physical space to work, network, and access shared resource. 

 Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)

PUP benefited from the PATHWAY project with their career center, technology business incubation, and OJT staff with 60 staff benefiting from the PATHWAY trainings. Students were trained on developing personal brand, e-resume writing, mastering communication and interview questions, career exploration, crafting a viable business plan, and business pitching among others. 

Students engaged with the business sector and have them interact with our students in the 100/20 events and the hackathons. From this, a new service in the career development office that focuses on entrepreneurship was offered. To integrate all of the university’s efforts in equally providing opportunities on job placement and entrepreneurship among their students, the PUP SIBOL was launched. 

St. Paul University Philippines (SPUP)

The PATHWAY project was instrumental in the establishment of SPUP’s  Entrepreneurship & Employment Center. Students were trained on soft skills and made to engage with the business sector in the 100/20 events and the hackathons. PUP’s HACKATHON was composed of Pre-Hackathon lecture and apprenticeship on July 4, 2023 and the main hackathon with demo and pitching on July 10-11, 2023. 48 students worked in teams to come with an innovative solution to a challenge proposed by St. Paul University Philippines. The winning team was sponsored by PATHWAY to travel to Valencia, Spain and attend the Valencia Digital Summit 2023 where they got a chance to engage with aspiring CEOs, business leaders, inverstors, and promising startups.

 Here is a timeline of the major activities for the three-year span of the PATHWAY project:

February 24, 2021-PATHWAY Launch Event. This was held online with talks from representatives of the EU Delegation to the Philippines, the Commission for Higher Education, the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, the University of Alicante and Mid Sweden University.

June-December 2021-Survey on State of the Art of Employment and Entrepreneurship in the Philippines, and management and coordination meetings. The survey among faculty and staff involved in employability, placement, career, and entrepreneurship programs and services was implemented to help the project have a general overview of the respondents’ thoughts and insights. The result highlighted the current practices of Employability and Entrepreneurship in HEIs in preparing students for the market needs, and creating employment opportunities for students in the Philippines. 

March 21-25, 2022- Training of Trainers (ToT1) Systems to Support Employability and Entrepreneurship. The University of Alicante (UA), Spain, hosted 21 Filipino participants in the 5-day training. Juan Llopis, Director of Institutional Relations and Projects of UA, together with PATHWAY Coordinator Cristina Beans, welcomed the participants. The hybrid face-to-face and online training consisted of presentations by UA and the University of Montpelier (UM) staff on their respective universities’ best practices, strategies, and success stories in grooming and launching their students towards employment or entrepreneurship. The presentations were followed by workshops where the participants brainstormed on how their universities could explore collaboration, engage with relevant stakeholders, and bring the labor market to their campuses. The final workshop was the designing of an activity to bring together 100 students and 20 businesses at each partner university.

The face-to-face participants experienced Spanish culture by learning to make two variations of Arroz Alicantino, a type of paella typical in Alicante, at the Hestia Lucentum where they were guided by professional chefs. A walking tour of the Castillo de Santa Barbara and the Barrio de la Santa Cruz historic neighbourhood also oriented them about Alicante’s history. The training was capped with a management meeting in which future activities of the project were planned out.

 

 May 16-20, 2022-Training of Trainers (ToT2) Inspiring and Supporting Entrepreneurship. This was held in Montpellier, France following the successful completion of Training Mission 1 in Alicante, Spain. The five-day program included training sessions on developing the entrepreneurial path and social entrepreneurship as well as wrap-up discussions and French lessons during its first day. The second day of the training gave the participants a venue to collaborate and learn with each other. The activities and topics included the workshop on canvanizer, visit to the UM Trading Room, two lectures on providing Entrepreneurial Education and on supporting and inspiring entrepreneurship for students. The day was capped with a visit to the UM Institute of Technology Laboratory. The third day began with a management meeting discussion, lectures on professional insertion at the Institute of Business Administration and on promoting student entrepreneurship, followed by a workshop and brainstorming session on curricular reform and skills set. The day ended with a wrap-up and conclusions. The fourth day of the training showcased the impact of the innovation laboratories of UM on start-up businesses. The day was also led by training speakers from the ECCP and CHED on entrepreneurship education in the Philippines. An informative wine-tasting event ensued that taught the Filipino delegates about the local wine culture of Montpellier.

The last day of the training was dotted with management discussions of the future activities in the PATHWAY project. The training was capped with an introduction of Training of Trainers 3. Over-all, the delegates were able to gather first-hand knowledge of the functions and structural organization of entrepreneurial incubators. Numerous insights were gathered on how to improve student services related to business/entrepreneurship centers in higher education institutions. 

 

June-August 2022-Pathway university partners engage with local entrepreneurs. Pathway university partners Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), Benguet State University (BSU), Saint Paul University of the Philippines (SPUP), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and Lyceum of the Philippines University – Batangas (LPU – Batangas) engaged with local entrepreneurs through the 100/20 enterprises activity.

The 100/20 enterprises is an activity that each university partner conducted in order to provide students an opportunity to understand and interact with the enterprise leaders and learn more about the world of work. The target was for each university partner to have 100 students interact with 20 enterprises, thus the name 100/20. The activity generally aims for engagement between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and industries.

AdMU held its 100/20 activity on July 25, 2022 with 137 students engaging with 20 industry representatives; BSU on August 2, 2022 with 165 students, 266 live viewers and 20 industry representatives; PUP on June 28, 2022 with 100 students and 21 industry representatives; SPUP on July 13, 2022 with 100 students and 20 industry representatives; and LPU-Batangas on June 24, 2022.*

The 100/20 activities covered a range of topics. Industry representatives from the fields of hotel and restaurant services, ICT, engineering, finance and health services were the invited resource speakers. Each university partner came up with their activity designs. Most have conducted plenary sessions and some did the hybrid of face to face and online plenary sessions.

October 10-13, 2022-Training of Trainers (ToT 3) Developing Soft Skills and Labor Market Observatories. This was hosted by the AdMU. The ToT3 module focused on the development and evaluation of HEI students' soft skills, and the creation and purpose of employment observatories. Resource speakers from the University of Alicante, Spain and University of Montpellier, France provided lectures and facilitated workshops for the participants to determine how soft skills can be evaluated, understand how Observatories function in EU HEIs and understand the importance of setting up an Observatory and its benefits for the Filipino Higher Education System.

 

October 14, 2022-World of Work Café. The World of Work Café, a PATHWAY National Event, became a symbolic gathering of people from the business, education and government sectors who shared the Pathway goal of enhancing the entrepreneurship and employability culture of Philippine HEIs to meet labour market needs and government reforms. 

Representatives from companies, DOLE, CHED, the European Union Delegation in the Philippines, the Senate Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education and the House Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education committed their support to the development of employability and entrepreneurship in the country.

2023- Replication Trainings, Student Trainings, Hackathons, and launching of new services. The year 2023 witnessed a surge in activity for the HEI partners involved in the PATHWAY project. Building upon the groundwork laid in previous years, the focus shifted towards replication, expansion, and innovation.

 

June-December 2023- Polishing and Finalizing the Philippine Entrepreneurial Framework. The Entrepreneurship Task Force worked with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and various consultants to come up with the Philippine Entrepreneurial Framework.

April 3-4, 2024- PATHWAY National Conference. The project Promoting the employAbility and enTrepreneurship of Higher Education graduates through innovative WAYs in the Philippines (PATHWAY)  has concluded with a National Conference held on April 3-4, 2024 at the Golden Lion Hotel of Pangasinan State University.

The National Conference titled “PATHWAYs to Success: Expanding Opportunities for Higher Education Graduates through Entrepreneurship and Employability,” was facilitated by the project partners led by the International Affairs Service, Region 1 Office and Office of Programs and Standards Development of the Commission on Higher Education. 

The conference, which was also streamed through Zoom and shared in Facebook, was participated by public and private schools from all over the Philippines.