EMPLOYERS should emphasize job competencies in their hiring process rather than college degrees, the advocacy group Philippine Business for Education said.

Justine Raagas, director of the PBEd program for workforce development, said employers must consider applicants’ duties during the hiring process.

“[Companies] need to think of competencies. This means that they should think of the actual job and what the tasks entail so that when they hire or put out job advertisements, they don’t check for a paper qualification first but the actual competencies,” Raagas said.

Lovelaine Basillote, executive director of PBEd, urged companies to assess their hiring procedures to match the competencies required for the position.

“It’s more of an overall review of the recruitment process so that you really hire a person fit for the job with the right competencies, making sure that you just hire for the job and the skills required of the job,” Basillote said.

“When you check the job descriptions nowadays, almost all require college degrees. This should change because we already have the K-12 program,” she added. “We need to prove that the K-12 program is able to produce holistically developed individuals.”