BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Graduate School

Issues, Challenges and Prospects in Technology and Home Economics at

Anselmo A. Sandoval Memorial National High School

I. Introduction
II. Issues and Challenges

Entrepreneurship will be “contextualized” in all of these tracks, strands or

specialization. The goal is to teach and train the students with needed skills
to be an entrepreneur whatever “track” they choose as a senior high school
student. In this manner, K to 12 program will introduce the students to the
world of entrepreneurship and teach them that anybody can be an
entrepreneur.

Even if all students earned a high school diploma and mastered

traditional academic subjects, they still would be ill prepared for the
expectations of the new economy. Today, a different set of skills—
21st century skills—increasingly powers the wealth of nations.
Skills that support innovation, including creativity, critical thinking,
and problem solving, are in great demand.
Global awareness is a new essential in the global economy.
Students need to be able to learn from and work collaboratively
with people. They need to be able to communicate in languages
other than English. Likewise, financial, economic, business, and
entrepreneurial literacy are new imperatives. Guaranteed
pensions are a rarity today, so the responsibility for retirement
planning, saving, and investment management falls on individuals.
Recent crises in the banking, credit, and mortgage industries—and
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the severe recession—underscore the importance of
understanding how economic forces impact people’s lives. Failure
to make responsible financial choices could adversely affect
individuals’ quality of life for years. At work, people need to know
how they fit in and contribute to a larger organization, and they
need to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to their lives. By
recognizing opportunities, risks, and rewards, they can enhance
their workplace productivity and career options and take changing
circumstances in stride
When students communicate, collaborate, and create real
value, motivation and passion soar. Students can quickly spot the
difference between a class that is playing the game of school and
a class that is engaged in meaningful real-world learning. If
teachers facilitate opportunities for students to develop these skills
through teaching entrepreneurship, grades and due dates become
secondary. The classroom can become an incredible place.

It may seem, however, that there is no time for teaching

entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial skills. Content, assessments,
and standards mandated by higher powers leave little room for
these student-led projects.

But if the job of school is to prepare students for college and

career, then it is essential for educators to teach entrepreneurship.
According to Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y Research &
Management Consulting Firm, one in three employers seek
entrepreneurial experience in its hires.
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Now, that does not mean every student has to start a business.
The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) notes that “An
extensive body of literature suggest[s] that entrepreneurial skills
such as creative problem solving and collaboration are important
for academic success.” In other words, even for students who
never want to launch a startup, entrepreneurial education is
beneficial. When students hone their critical thinking and problem-
solving skills, they prepare for college, career, and 21st-century
success.

But can we teach entrepreneurial skills or are they inherent in

students’ personalities?

In a report titled “On-Ramp to Opportunity,” NFTE points to

research suggesting that entrepreneurial skills, often overlapped
with the term non-cognitive skills, are malleable just like other
aspects of our education. Basically, kids get better with practice.
The report cites a study of a middle school entrepreneurship
education program in the Netherlands that led to an increase in
“self-efficacy, achievement orientation, risk-taking propensity and
probleming solving skills” among student participants. These are
all skills that I’d like my students to have, whether they become
business leaders or traditional employees.
Entrepreneur and best-selling author, James Altucher, once
said: “. . . the first thing I'll tell you to do is don't spend two hundred
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Graduate School
thousand dollars on a college degree and waste four years of your
life.”

That may be true for some students, but that broad, blanket
statement does a disservice to both traditional schooling and
entrepreneurial curriculum—and ultimately, to the students
themselves. As with most things in life, it’s not so black and white.
Sure, for a small minority of students, it may make sense to start a
company without finishing school. For others, completing school
and following their own path (entrepreneurial or otherwise) from
there is a better fit.

I believe that there’s incredible value in both forms of

education—especially when they work together.

Traditional education teaches students the importance of

innovation, critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and
taking initiative. A high school entrepreneurship curriculum gives
students real-life opportunities to put the skills they’ve learned in
the classroom into action.
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Graduate School

When paired together, teaching high school students both a

traditional curriculum and an entrepreneurship program not only
offers opportunities to communicate, collaborate, and create; it
also strengthens their confidence, encourages their creativity, and
puts critical thinking into practice . . . whether they plan to be the
next Mark Zuckerberg or not.

The skills learned through entrepreneurship encourage high

school students to get started without instruction, to try new things
without fear of failure, and to think bigger than solutions that may
already be provided in a textbook—lessons that complement
what’s being taught through a traditional curriculum and encourage
students to pursue their full potential.( Author: Josh Collins,
Founder and CEO of Quarter Zero)

III. Trends and Prospects

There are criticisms that most of the Senior High students who are not
proceeding to college are simply not job-ready. The K-12 program of “work
immersion” for two weeks cannot transform these students into skilled
workers needed by industry. Accordingly, they should have at least 300-600
hours of “on-the-job training” or OJT. This is the minimum number of OJT
hours required by Germany under its rigorous skills program for secondary
students, which combines theory with industry practicum.

As it is, unemployment remains highest among the youth who have finished
high school up to college. Given this reality on the supply side, industry
labor recruiters in various regions are likely to give preference to young
workers who have at least some years of college education on the
assumption that they are more mature and have higher commitment to work
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Graduate School
compared to just high school finishers. Incidentally, unemployment among
the elementary and secondary drop-outs is low because these workers
cannot afford to be choosy or selective about jobs compared to those with
basic or tertiary education. Those without basic education diplomas
constitute the bulk of the country’s underemployed, meaning workers who
occupy low-level jobs with limited compensation and protection.

So what can be done to make the K-12 program work and take off?
Remember, the K-12 is an “education reform initiative” that was rushed and
instituted by the Aquino Administration with limited preparation for the school
system, teachers, parents and students.

As pointed out in previous articles, there are no easy answers. But there
are some clear doables.

First, enhancing the employability of Senior High students is not the sole
task of those managing the K-12 bureaucracy. The labor market has supply
and demand sides. The institutions involved on both sides of the market
must get involved and work together.

The suggestion that two weeks of “work immersion” under the K-12
curriculum be changed into 300-600 hours of OJT in a real industry setting
sounds good except that such proposal can only accommodate so many
students. Unlike Germany, the Philippines does not have a galaxy of
industries that can serve as alternative classrooms for Senior High students.
In most regions of the country, the economic universe is populated by solo,
family, micro and small enterprises which cannot absorb any OJT trainees
nor can they allow the students to occupy limited work spaces for 300-600
hours. Not surprisingly, in many provinces, the work immersion destinations
for Senior High students have turned out to be government offices where
some students are reported to have become experts in mixing coffee drinks
for government bosses.

Also, jobs in the services sector, which predominates, does not need long
OJT hours for students to acquire the required skills and work experience.
Deploying Senior High students to work in fast-food chains as bus boys or
girls for 600 hours with no compensation (in the name of training) opens the
school system and the cooperating companies to charges of labor
exploitation and even child labor, if the students are less than the legal
working age of 18.
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The point is that there is indeed an urgent need for policy coordination
among the institutions involved on the supply and demand sides of the labor
market. In fact, policy coordination is one of most neglected areas of the
education-demand nexus. The absence of policy coordination, especially in
the areas of curriculum development and employment planning, gives rise
to issues of mismatches or lack of fit between jobs and job seekers.

This is why a consultative and coordinative body such as the proposed

Government-Industry-Education Council or GIEC is a must. The GIEC
should be set up at the national, regional and provincial/city levels. Industry
in the GIEC should be interpreted in a broad sense, meaning it includes not
only leaders of big industry and business establishments but also
representatives of the farming sector, small business, social enterprises and
other actors involved in investing and growing the economy of a particular
region.

One job of the GIEC is to do “development mapping”, that is, map not only
the economic and labor market changes in a given regional or provincial/city
economy but also the emerging and likely trends in the economy (from local
to global) that are likely to affect or influence the economic/employment and
education situation in the said regional/provincial/city economy. This then
can be the guide of education planners (not only for those in DepEd but also
for those from TESDA and CHED) in their review of the curriculum, which
should be increasingly geared to or aligned with the world of work.
Incidentally, under the local autonomy law of 1991 and the proposed
“federalization” of government, the job of preparing the local economic
development blueprint, especially employment and human resource
development plan for the local economy, is a mandated and fundamental
task of local government executives and legislators.

On the other hand, the education planning process will never be easy for it
entails a holistic approach and a better grasp of the economic and
employment situation. As pointed out by the authors of K-12 education
reform and the harmonized “trifocalization” of the education system involving
DepEd, TESDA and CHED, education leaders should be able to develop a
continuous and seamless pathway of learning that enables young people to
move from secondary to higher education and vocational training while
accumulating skills and work experiences throughout their lives. Part of the
learning pathway is opportunity for entrepreneurship, which is very much
needed in the farming sector and underdeveloped regions of the country.
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Graduate School
Also part of the education planning is the challenge of how to provide career
guidance, labor market information and counselling to Senior High students.
How many high school graduates who leave the portals of the school without
any idea of where to go after schooling? How many graduate who cannot
even distinguish the difference between an “AB” and “BS”, let alone “MA” or
“MS” degrees? How many high school graduates leave the school system
with a deeper appreciation of how their local economy looks like and what
are the job prospects for them?

In all of this, policy coordination, made possible through continuous

consultation and dialogue among the social partners, is crucial. Hence, the
importance of the GIEC. The dialogue-coordination process can become
the platform in determining how education and skills development can
become responsive to the changing needs of the national and local economy
as well as life aspirations of the young work force. This platform of dialogue
can also guide the experts in making skills certifications and in developing
the standards under the Philippine qualifications framework that has been
enacted into a law early this year.

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IV. Recommendations

1. Linking Curriculum to Real- World Business Challenges

2. Creating of Social Entrepreneurship Contest
3. Partnering with businesses
4. Inviting business executives to deliver lectures
5. Provide Consulting Services to Small Businesses and Nonprofits
6. Help Students Launch Their Own Businesses
7. Emphasize Technology Topics in Curricula
8. Blending Business Textbooks & Virtual Business Education
Software
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9. Online Business Lessons

To provide settings for individual, small-group, and large-group

interations. SHW called these settings small-group collaboration
zones, project rooms, facilitator collaboration zones, single
subject-matter learning environments, dual subject-matter learning
environments, a digital media library, and large multigroup
collaboration zones

Designing new learning environments

1. learning environments with integrated learning studios, breakout

areas, distance learning and presentation
rooms, and project conference rooms for preparing presentations
2. Furniture is also unique to allow studios to be arranged flexibly for
large-group, small-group, or individual work as needed. Studios
feature rolling tables and chairs. Tables flip up for post-its and
other displays
3. To build on the educational initiatives of collaboration and
transparency in the learning process, certain rooms open out to
hallways and, in some cases, glass was inserted into existing walls
so that visitors, learners, and facilitators can see the processes at
work.
4. Flexible table and chairs
5. Workrooms also have tools for making scale models, structures,
and products for exhibition
6. Classrooms/workrooms have state-of-the-art computers,
peripherals, and presentation technologies for students to do their
work and exhibit it
7. Students work with expert mentors in the real world, two days a
week

V. Resources
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2014/09/10/10-ways-
universities-can-improve-education-for-social-
entrepreneurship/#15e782775625

https://www.quarterzero.com/high-school-entrepreneurship-curriculum/

http://businessmirror.com.ph/httpsmaking-the-k-12-program-work/

http://amppob.com/why-k-12-entrepreneurial-education-is-critical-to-a-
students-success/

Why K-12 Entrepreneurial Education is Critical to a Student’s Success

Add CommentHonestly, I didn’t even know it was an option,” she said.

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A recent college graduate, she sat across the table from me at the Venture Center explaining that
she didn’t even know places like the Venture Center existed.

“I always assumed that entrepreneurs were special. They had all the connections or money,” she
continued. “But now I see that anyone can do it. You don’t just have to settle for any old job.”

The Venture Center recently welcomed a group of students from eStem’s Noble Impact program in
an effort to expose students to the community’s entrepreneurial resources.

Where Does Entrepreneurial Education Start?

Entrepreneurism begins with the realization that launching a new business is possible. If you never
understand that opening a startup is a career choice, you never try. Entrepreneurism remains
distant. It is something “out there.” It’s not a viable option.

How many great ideas never make it to market? How many remarkable businesses never launch
simply because those who would have launched them never believed they were possible?

Noble Impact exposes high school students to the startup community. But that’s not all. Students
also explore key components of the startup community and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. The
most important thing that Noble Impact has done for students at eStem is that the program has
exposed them to real world environments and relationships.

What would happen if entrepreneurism were just a “normal” career option in the minds of young
startup leaders?

To change students’ mindsets, they have to be exposed to the idea in the early stages of their
development.

Entrepreneurship education at the K-12 level is not only important, it’s critical. We live in a world of
constant change and we can’t wait to introduce students to real world education until they leave
high school.

Chad Williamson, Noble Impact at eStem

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If students are not exposed to the “real world” until they leave high school, they are at a
disadvantage. The barrier for entry in entrepreneurism is lower. Due to rapid technological
advancements, if a student isn’t turning his/her interests into marketable skills, he/she may already
be behind.

High school students are learning code like their parents learned a second language. Many of these
budding developers are launching apps and web platforms to solve real-life problems that impact
their daily lives.

The students who are taught to assess risk are able to craft a business model and position and
launch their solution as a product in the market place. As a result, they set themselves up for
success in the workplace.

Why Is Early Entrepreneurial Education Important?

Chad Williamson with eStem also points out that “An understanding of the startup ecosystem is
valuable to all students because it’s deeply rooted in risk-taking and high-level communication.”

Life involves risk. Those who have the greatest skills in mitigating and minimizing risk advance in all
areas of life. Teaching students to analyze and navigate risk in a real world setting allows them to
make smaller mistakes with moderated consequences.

Lou McAlister Picture

Lou McAlister, Entrepreneur-in-

This opportunity helps to develop greater emotional intelligence, an important component of a

successful entrepreneur. Investors want to know that the entrepreneur has an investable idea, but
they also want to know that the entrepreneur is an investable person, says Lou McAlister,
Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Venture Center.

When people learn that entrepreneurism is a career option and they develop the emotional fortitude
to process and minimize risk, they are positioned to move into the startup community with a strong
foundation. They come to the market as an investable person. The energy of their efforts can be
focused on producing the best, most investable business idea.

Why a Strong Startup Community?

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One of the key components to a strong entrepreneurial community is diversity. In a thriving
community, all elements are welcomed. Diversity is celebrated.

Why is diversity important?

I’m all about the boats rising together, the importance of diversity, and being fiercely conscious of
inclusivity … more people will want to be part of the game. Strong entrepreneurial ecosystems drive
economic growth, educational outcomes and relationships.

Chad Williamson, Noble Impact at eStem

The greatest result of a strong entrepreneurial community is an expansion of the “pie.” The more
ideas that are fostered, the larger the economic pie grows.

Entrepreneurism gives each member of the community an opportunity to contribute to the growth of
the larger economic pie, and it provides an opportunity for other community members to experience
the economic benefit of that expansion.

What is the Bottom Line?

Educating students early about entrepreneurism gives them options. Options bring hope. Exposure
to real life communities, growth and innovation enables students to be stronger people with a high
emotional intelligence. It prepares them to compete in the marketplace—whether they launch their
own business or contribute to the success of someone else’s.
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Graduate School

Written Report

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

Home Economics
TLE 502

submitted by:

ZOILA A. ESCALONA

submitted to:

Dr. Nora G. Dimaano