Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Enhancing the Match between Manpower Supply and Demand
Dear Sir/Madam:
Schooling and job match is generally viewed as a very important determinant of quality college education. To determine the match, quality education proponents must know the skills, qualities, and competencies of college graduates that employers want to hire and the attitudes of employers and newly hired college graduates toward certain factors related to the said match. It is in this light that I am writing this letter.
I would like to request you or any of your authorized representatives, especially your Human Resources Officer, and your new employees (who graduated from March 2004 to the present) to answer the questionnaires on the aforementioned skills, qualities, and competencies and related data for a survey on schooling-job match I am conducting.
The survey is part of a dissertation I am working on as student of Doctor of Education at the Graduate School of the University of the East - Manila. The purpose of the dissertation is implied in its title, “Enhancing the Match between Manpower Supply and Demand.” To gather the data for the survey, I randomly selected 100 top corporations in the Philippines. Your corporation is among those selected.
Needless to say, your frank and honest responses to the questionnaires, however painful they may be to educators, can significantly help enhance the match between manpower supply and demand. These responses to the questionnaires will be treated with utmost confidentiality. And if time and budget permit, you will be furnished at least with an expanded abstract of this study as soon as it is approved by the dissertation defense panel.
Enclosed are copies of the questionnaires for corporation officials and for your new employees. Copies of these questionnaires can also be accessed in http://crisbruza.blogspot.com. My research assistant or I will be contacting you for the retrieval of the questionnaires. Or you may prefer to ask a staff member of yours to send the filled-up questionnaires through the following means:
1. Fax number 962-23-59
2. E-mail address c_a_bruza@yahoo.com
For inquiries, I can be contacted through fax/phone No. 962-23-59 or, the fastest, through cell phone No. 09178304874.
Thank you very much.
Very truly yours,
CRISOL A. BRUZA
QUESTIONNAIRE 1 (For Human Resource Officers) No. ______ Date _______
NAME OF RESPONDENT _________________________
NAME OF ESTABLISHMENT __________________________
POSITION IN ESTABLISHMENT _________________________
1. What is the ratio between professional and non-professional positions in your firm?
a. Number of professional positions (those that require college graduates) : _____
b. Number of non-professional positions (those that do not require college graduates) : _____
c. Number of non-professional positions occupied by college graduates : _____
2. What do you often use in disseminating information on job vacancies?
2. What do you often use in disseminating information on job vacancies?
Please check
[ ] Company bulletin board
[ ] Direct hire
[ ] Employment agency
[ ] Government agency
[ ] Internet
[ ] Job fair
[ ] Non-government organization
[ ] Personal contact
[ ] Professional association
[ ] School placement office
[ ] Wanted ad (newspapers)
[ ] Other. Please specify ___________
3. What are the skills, qualities, and competencies required by your firm in jobs occupied by college graduates?
On a scale of 0 to 5, please indicate the degree of importance as requirement for professional jobs the following skills, qualities, and competencies by circling the corresponding number at the right of each statement. (Rating scale: 0: not important, 1: least important, 2: moderately important, 3: important, 4: very important, 5: most important)
a. Good communication skills, especially in English. 0 1 2 3 4 5
b. Good thinking skills (creative thinking, making decisions, solving problems, visualizing, knowing how to learn, and reasoning). 0 1 2 3 4 5
c. Computer and related technical skills. 0 1 2 3 4 5
d. Good personal qualities (displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity and honesty). 0 1 2 3 4 5
e. Professional competence. 0 1 2 3 4 5
f. (Other skills, qualities, and competencies. Please specify). 0 1 2 3 4 5
4. What are your attitudes toward certain aspects of the supply and demand of manpower?
Please indicate your agreement or disagreement to the statement by encircling SA for Strongly Agree, A for Agree, U for Undecided, D for Disagree, and SD for Strongly Disagree.
a. Based on the experience of our firm with our new employees, college graduates are generally ready for the jobs related to the course they have finished. SA A U D SD
b. There are some schools whose graduates our firm prefers to hire. SA A U D SD
c. In the last five years, my firm has introduced new technology that has changed the skills, qualities, and competencies required in jobs for college graduates. SA A U D SD
d. To compete with other firms in getting better trained employees, our firm has to offer higher pay, especially to applicants of jobs for college graduates. SA A U D SD
e. It is easier to keep the pay of employees low if many of them are unemployed. SA A U D SD
f. The policy of the government to keep wages low to attract foreign investors is also beneficial to local business. SA A U D SD
Thank you for your time.
