Philippine Journal of Science

151 (3): 1171-1184, June 2022

ISSN 0031 - 7683
Date Received: 08 Nov 2021

Factors Influencing Employment of Female Graduates

of Technical and Vocational Education and
Training Program in the Philippines

Mara Sherlin D.P. Talento1*, Nancy A. Tandang1, Rosette Anne O. Rogelio2,

and Rachelyn Ann S. Araña-Roldan3

1Institute
of Statistics, College of Arts and Sciences,
University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna 4031 Philippines
2Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences,
University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna 4031 Philippines
3AI4Gov, Solutions Designed for Public Service, AIM Conference Center,
Makati City, Metro Manila 1260 Philippines

Unemployment has been a long-standing problem in many countries, including the Philippines,
and the recent pandemic even worsened the economic conditions of Filipinos with a large part
of the population losing their jobs. One way to create more platforms that will enable the
employability of the population is through the technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) program, whose goal is to produce middle- and high-skilled graduates ready to take
on the demands of the rapidly changing economy. With the current gender gap in terms of
employment, this study focuses on the employment status of female graduates of TVET and
the possible factors that influence the employment of Filipino female TVET graduates were
determined. The survey data collected by the Technical Education and Skills Development
Authority (TESDA) in 2018 for their employability study of 2017 women TVET graduates was
utilized in this study. Binary Firth logistic regression models were fitted on subpopulations of
TVET female graduates who were employed before and after training. Results have shown a
significant increase in the proportion of employed women after graduation, which was indicated
in the estimates before and after the training. Among the unemployed Filipino female before
the training, more than half of them (52%) were employed after the training. Age, education,
region, and reasons for taking up a program showed to be determinants of the employability
of female TVET graduates. The factors that hinder women from entering employment despite
their TVET training is the primacy of their household and family duties. Their choice or nature
of programs shows that women take stereotypical roles associated with women, an issue that
is still present today because of prevailing traditional gender norms. With the huge decline
in economic activities brought by the pandemic, the results of this study will be particularly
important in creating more and better employment opportunities for Filipino women.

Keywords: education, employability, gender and employment, logistic regression, TVET

*Corresponding author: mdtalento@up.edu.ph

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INTRODUCTION
In the most recent report of the World Economic Forum
(WEF 2021) on the global gender gap, there is still a huge
gap between men and women in four key areas: political
empowerment, economic participation and opportunity,
educational attainment, and health and survival. Economic
participation and opportunity remain the “second-largest
of the four key gaps tracked by the index” (WEF 2021).
On the global scale, the huge gap can be explained by
the disparity in the labor force participation rates (LFPR)
between men and women, with 80% of men aged 15–64
yr old being in the labor force compared to just 52.6% of
the female counterparts (WEF 2021). A look at the world
statistics on women’s LFPR demonstrates a continuous
decreasing trend since 2000 (WB 2021).
Zooming into the Philippines, the women’s labor
participation rate is growing. According to the latest WEF
(2021) report, the country stands as the top-performing
country in the Asia-Pacific region in the global gender
gap index, signifying the country’s good performance in
closing the gender gap. Orbeta (2003) identified older
women to have a high contribution to the growth in
participation of women. One existing hypothesis about
this increasing trend might be due to the role of women
as support to household financial matters (Orbeta 2003).
Despite this, a lot more work is needed to fully close the
gap in economic participation and opportunity as it shows
that there is only a 49.1% participation rate of females
versus the 75.2% participation rate of males in the labor
market (WEF 2021). Data from the Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA 2021), on the other hand, shows that by
April 2021, the female LFPR is at 51.4%, whereas the
male LFPR is at 75%.
It is important to look not just at numbers on women’s
employment but also on the type of employment they are
in. This huge gap between the employment status of men
and women could be associated with a large number of
women [i.e. 57% of all females who are employed are in
the informal sector (Bersales and Ilarina 2019)], wherein
they take on jobs that are more flexible but vulnerable
and low-paying so that they can still attend to care work
in their homes (UPCWGS 2021). This is due in part to
the normative expectations of women as homemakers
and, thus, their performance of unpaid care work. With
this, breaking down normative and legal barriers for
women to participate in the labor force and work for their
advancement should be a policy priority of all countries
(WEF 2021). According to Beghini et al. (2019), structural
barriers and cultural restrictions are not the only factors
of women’s participation in the labor force, but also some
of these factors are schooling and lack of employment
opportunities.
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Talento et al.: Employment of Filipino Female
TVET Graduates
Maclean and Lai (2011) discussed the importance of
TVET in providing better opportunities to many, wherein
it mostly benefited the marginalized sector. TVET helps
in uplifting the economy by offering skill acquisition
programs that are needed by society, which later provides
more employment. TESDA in the Philippines is tasked
to manage and supervise the technical education and
skills development of the Filipino workforce. With
the rapidly changing demands of work in the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, TVET is challenged to produce
graduates that are middle-skilled or high-skilled (ADB,
2021). TVET programs by TESDA are delivered by
both TTI (TESDA Technology Institutions) and non-
TTI in different modes of learning: institution-based,
community-based, and enterprise-based. Under TESDA is
the TWC or the TESDA Women’s Center, which seeks to
advance the economic status of women through training,
entrepreneurship development, gender-sensitive policies,
programs and projects, and research and advocacy.
Researchers like Paudel (2019) plus Ngugi and Muthima
(2017) support TVET as an alternative pathway to
increase women’s participation in the economy. In the
Philippines, Rayan (2015) evaluated TVET program
implementation in terms of its quality and relevance,
specifically the Montfortian TVET programs. He found
out that most of the graduates were employed and few
partake in self-employment. He also concluded that
income varies in different provinces and that a significant
portion of graduates went out of their province of origin
for higher income. The Asian Development Bank (ADB
2021) released a more extensive and general evaluation of
TVET in the Philippines. According to ADB (2021), both
the employment rate and unemployment rate of TVET are
growing and higher than the national average. This implies
that Filipinos enrolling in TVET are becoming more active
in labor participation, thus being a good indicator for the
economy. The high unemployment rate after graduation
is also expected since most people entering TVET is
already unemployed before the training (74% in 2012)
(ADB 2021). Moreover, recently, there were more female
enrollees than males. Data from TESDA showed that in
2016, female enrollees in the TVET program outnumbered
the males with 57 and 43%, respectively, and they have
similar training completion rates (Illo n/d). The high
unemployment rate of TVET is not necessarily a poor
indication because some enrollees take TVET programs
for reasons other than employment purposes like self-
improvement and skill acquisition (ADB 2021).
With the current situation of Filipino female labor
force participation and the contribution of TVET to the
economy, this study aimed to provide possible factors
that influence the employment of Filipino female TVET
graduates. Specifically, this study aimed to [1] estimate the
Philippine Journal of Science
Vol. 151 No. 3, June 2022
proportion of TVET female graduates who were employed
before and after the training, as well as [2] identify factors
affecting the employment of TVET female graduates.
This study can provide a baseline analysis for understanding
the trend of female participation in vocational careers. The
statistical analyses are complemented with sociological
insights that help explain the structural and cultural factors
influencing the female’s status in the workforce. Given
this, this study will help lawmakers and non-government
agencies to support women’s advocacies in their future
plans. This will then extend to enabling more Filipino
women who wish to pursue their careers in technical
vocation. In this manner, the study can contribute to the
5th Sustainable Development Goal, which is to achieve
gender equality. Further, this study is only limited to
factors considered in the study, which are based on the data
from the 2018 employability study of TVET graduates.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data Source
This study used the survey data collected by the TESDA
for their 2018 employability study of 2017 TVET
graduates with 6,725 respondents. In 2018, the said survey
received clearance from the PSA, which ensures a sound
statistical survey operation. This study was conducted
by TESDA as part of their program development. All 17
regions served as the domains of the study. Per region,
a random sample of graduates was selected employing
the stratified random sampling method with sex, type of
providers (TTI or non-TTI), and scholarship programs
as stratification variables. This study focused on 2,770
female participants aged 15–65 yr old.
Data Analysis
To characterize the employability of TVET women
graduates, this study considered the employment status of
women before and after the completion of their program
(TVET). The factor variables of the study include
occupational status plus socio-demographic and economic
profiles of females, as the literature suggested. Summary
statistics on these factors were generated and cross-
tabulations with employment status were constructed. A
mosaic plot was also constructed to visualize conditional
percentages. To test the hypothesis that two categorical
variables are associated, a design-based Wald’s test was
performed. Change rates of employment before and after
training were also computed. Moreover, the common
odds ratios for each factor that might have an effect on
the association were generated using the Cochran-Mantel-
Haenszel test and the Breslow-Day test.
Talento et al.: Employment of Filipino Female
TVET Graduates
To consider the characteristics of employed and
unemployed female graduates before entering the
program, separate models were constructed for each
group. For each model analysis, a hypothesis that a
particular explanatory variable influences a graduate being
employed was tested. Binary Firth logistic regression
models (with forward search algorithm) were fitted for the
group of employed before the training and for the group
of unemployed before the training.
RESULTS
Profile of 2017 TVET Women Graduates
The largest portion of female TVET graduates in 2017
came from Region IV-A (CALABARZON) with 14.6%,
slightly higher than NCR with 14.4%. Most of the women
graduates were also residents of Luzon. On the other
hand, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao posted the lowest portion of these graduates
at approximately 0.8%. This is seconded by Region
IX (Zamboanga Peninsula) at 2.1%, a bit lower than
CARAGA (2.3%) and CAR (2.4%) (Figure 1).
Most of the graduates were younger than 35 yr old,
and only a few were older than 55 yr old. The youngest
graduate was a 13 yr old, whereas the oldest was a 79
yr old. On average, a TVET women graduate was about
34 yr old with a standard deviation of 12.4 yr. Fifty
percent (50%) of the graduates were at most 32 yr of
age. It can also be noted that there were very few senior
citizens, as described by the coefficient of skewness of
0.70 (Table 1).
Employment Status of TVET Women Graduates
Four in every 10 female graduates (40%) were employed
before attending a TVET program. After the training,
around two-thirds (66.49%) of women graduates were
actively working. This shows a significant increase in
the proportion of employed women after the training
(p-value of < 0.0001). Moreover, more than a quarter
(30.84%) of the graduates had no work before attending
a TVET program and were able to acquire a job after
completing a TVET program. However, a few (4.8%)
were reported employed before but became unemployed
after attending a program. It is also important to note
that a considerable proportion of the women graduates
(28.71%) were still unemployed at the time of the survey
(Table A1).
The mosaic plot (Figure 2) visualizes the fraction
of TVET women graduates per subcategories of
employment before the training. Around one of eight
(12%) TVET women graduates who were employed
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Vol. 151 No. 3, June 2022 TVET Graduates

Figure 1. Weighted percent distribution of 2017 TVET women graduates by region.

Table 1. Summary statistics of the age of 2017 women graduates.

Minimum 13.0
Maximum 79.0
Mean 33.9
Median 32.0
Standard deviation 12.4
Skewness 0.70

before became unemployed after the program. On the

other hand, among the unemployed TVET women
before the training, more than half of them (52%) were
employed after the training.
Figure 2. A mosaic plot of the employment status of 2018 TVET
women graduates before and after the training.
Profile of Employed TVET Women Graduates after
Training
The vast majority (75%) of the TVET women graduates were degree holders (46%), followed by those who were
who were working at the time of the survey were 15–44 yr junior high school graduates (22%) who perhaps did not
old, in which the largest portion belonged to the age group pursue higher education and already worked to earn a living
25–34 yr old (27%). Many of those who were employed (Figure A1). Similarly, a large portion of the unemployed

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women graduates belonged to the age group 15–44 yr, in
which many were 15–24 yr old (32%). Moreover, many of
those unemployed were in junior high school as they were
still busy with their studies. In addition, it can be noted that
there were degree holders who were not actively working
at the time of the survey (30%).
Across regions, it is evident in the heat map (Figure
A2) that most employed women graduates have college
diplomas except in the Ilocos Region, where most employed
graduates have a secondary level of educational attainment.
The larger portion of the employed women in NCR were
degree holders or with bachelor units. Meanwhile, many
women aged 15–24 yr and at least college degree holders
in Central Luzon, MIMAROPA, Bicol, and Central Visayas
were employed. In addition to this, most of those who were
working in Eastern Visayas and SOCCSKSARGEN were
also at least college graduates from the age groups 45–54
and 35–44 yr, respectively. For the remaining regions, many
of those actively working were 25–34 yr old and at least
college graduates.
Comparison of Employment before and after the
Training by Demographics
Using the Breslow-Day test, the homogeneous association
between employment before and after training across regions
(p-value = 0.2307) and across educational attainment (p-value
= 0.4626) can be assumed (Table A3). Using the Cochran-
Mantel-Haenszel test, it can be said that employment before
and after training are conditionally associated, given their
region (p-value < 0.0001) and given their highest educational
attainment (p-value < 0.0001). Accounting for regional
variation, the estimated odds of employment after graduation
of individuals who were already employed pre-training
was 7.5356 times greater than the odds of employment
of unemployed individuals before the training. Moreover,
accounting for differences in highest educational attainment,
the estimated odds of employment after graduation of
individuals who were employed pre-training was 8.0625
times greater than the odds of employment of unemployed
individuals before the training.
Comparing the change in employment rates of before and
after training, the largest increase in employment rate
after training can be found among women graduates of
NCR (from 11 to 68%, with a 531% change rate). This is
followed by the Zamboanga Peninsula (from 13 to 31%,
with a 129% change rate). Only the employment rate of
BARMM showed a slightly downward trend (from 43 to
40%, with about –7% change rate). In terms of highest
educational attainment, TVET women graduates who
were college undergraduates showed the highest increase
in employment rate after training (from 36 to 66%, with
about 89% change rate). For the age clusters, those who
were 16–35 yr old at the time of the survey showed a
Talento et al.: Employment of Filipino Female
TVET Graduates
higher increase in employment rate after training (from 31
to 62%, with about a 100% raise) compared to the older
age group (Table A3).
Factors Affecting Employment after Training of
TVET Women Graduates
Women graduates who were employed before the
training. Factors considered in this study were socio-
demographic profiles (i.e. age in years, highest educational
attainment, and region where they currently reside) and
TVET profiles (i.e. program delivery mode, type of
TVET program, sector, whether they have a scholarship
program, whether they underwent career assessment and
competency assessment, as well as the type of provider),
as well as the graduates’ reasons for taking the TESDA
program. For those who were employed before the
training, monthly gross income was also included as
part of the factors under this study. Among all the factors
considered, age and educational attainment were found
to have an association with employment status after the
training of women graduates who were already employed
before the training (Table A2). Logistic regression was
then fitted for the sub-population of TVET women
graduates who were already employed before the training
using age and education as explanatory variables. Reasons
for taking up the TESDA program were also seen to
influence the employability of TVET women graduates
who were already employed before the training.
The fitted model reveals that when the age of employed
TVET women graduates increases by one year, the odds of
her getting a job after training also increase multiplicatively
by 1.066, holding the other factors constant. The odds
of being employed after training is higher by 2.85 if
the graduates’ reason for attending the program is for
employment than the odds for graduates whose reason is
for promotion. In addition, the odds of being employed after
training of graduates whose reason is for skill enhancement
is four times higher than that of graduates whose reason
for attending the program is for promotion. In terms of
education, the estimated odds of getting a job after training
is 1.418 times higher for college undergraduate students
than that of college graduate students. The model is fit
using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and
accurately predicted 87% of the in-sample responses with
high sensitivity and relatively low specificity (Table A4).
Women graduates who were unemployed before the
training. For the subpopulation of women graduates who
were unemployed before the training, the same socio-
demographic variables and TVET profile variables were
considered, except for the monthly gross income since this
sub-population had no work before the training. Likewise,
reasons for not looking for work were included. Among all
the factors considered, regions where graduates reside and
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Vol. 151 No. 3, June 2022 TVET Graduates

their reasons for not looking for work were found to have
an association with employment status after the training
of women graduates who were unemployed before the
training (Table A5). Logistic regression was also fitted for
this sub-population, in which region and reasons for not
looking for work were included as factors. The highest
educational attainment was also identified as a determinant
of the employability of TVET women graduates who were
unemployed before the training (Table 1).
Holding other factors constant, unemployed TVET women
before the training who have higher odds of obtaining
a job after training compared to those who were from
BARMM were from MIMAROPA (around 13 times
higher odds), Western Visayas (around 8 times higher
odds), CALABARZON (6 times higher odds), Bicol
Region (5 times higher odds), NCR (4 times higher odds),
SOCCSKSARGEN (4 times higher odds), Ilocos Region
(around 4 times higher odds), Caraga (around 3 times
higher odds), Central Visayas (around 3 times higher odds),
Northern Mindanao (twice as much as that of the odds in
NCR), Cagayan Valley Mindanao (twice as much as that of
the odds in NCR), Davao Region (93% higher odds), CAR
(78% higher odds), and Eastern Visayas (20% higher odds).

Table 2. Logistic regression of employment status after training of 2017 women graduates who were unemployed before the training using
age, education, and reasons for taking the program as factors.
Factor Coefficient Odds ratio SE A 95% CI for odds ratio p-value
Intercept –0.1345 0.874 0.046 [0.799, 0.956] < 0.001**
Regiona 
CAR 0.5782 1.783 0.055 [1.603, 1.984] < 0.001**
Caraga 0.9472 2.578 0.054 [2.320, 2.868] < 0.001**
NCR 1.4294 4.176 0.047 [3.810, 4.580] < 0.001**
Ilocos Region 1.3617 3.903 0.048 [3.556, 4.286] < 0.001**
Cagayan Valley 0.7010 2.016 0.051 [1.825, 2.228] < 0.001**
Central Luzon 0.0782 1.081 0.049 [0.982, 1.192] < 0.001**
CALABARZON 1.8624 6.439 0.047 [5.872, 7.066] < 0.001**
MIMAROPA 2.5291 12.543 0.052 [11.333, 13.891] < 0.001**
Bicol Region 1.7035 5.493 0.048 [4.998, 6.042] < 0.001**
Western Visayas 2.0568 7.821 0.049 [7.107, 8.613] < 0.001**
Central Visayas 0.9369 2.552 0.050 [2.315, 2.816] < 0.001**
Eastern Visayas 0.1834 1.201 0.051 [1.087, 1.328] < 0.001**
Zamboanga Peninsula –0.3783 0.685 0.058 [0.612, 0.767] < 0.001**
Northern Mindanao 0.7390 2.094 0.051 [1.897, 2.313] < 0.001**
Davao Region 0.6601 1.935 0.050 [1.753, 2.137] < 0.001**
SOCCSKSARGEN 1.4273 4.167 0.051 [3.774, 4.605] < 0.001**
Highest educational attainmentb 
College undergraduate –0.5387 0.583 0.011 [0.571, 0.596] < 0.001**
Others –0.5642 0.569 0.013 [0.554, 0.584] < 0.001**
Reasons for not looking for workc 
Household/family duties –1.2957 0.274 0.013 [0.267, 0.281] < 0.001**
Schooling –0.3845 0.681 0.013 [0.664, 0.698] < 0.001**
No work available –0.3555 0.701 0.015 [0.681, 0.722] < 0.001**
Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit test 𝜒² = 8.780; df = 8, p-value = 0.3612
Cut-off: 0.3716; sensitivity: 75.05%; specificity: 64.61%; accuracy: 70.20%
aBARMM as reference group
bCollege graduate as reference group
cOthersas reference group
**Significant at p-value ≤ 0.01
*Weighted total = 324,611 (n = 848)

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Unemployed TVET women graduates in Central Luzon
have almost the same odds of getting a job after training
with that of unemployed TVET women graduates in
BARMM, holding the other factors constant. Moreover,
the odds of getting a job after training for women who
were unemployed before the training is 45% higher in
BARMM than that in Zamboanga Peninsula, holding the
other factors constant.
In terms of educational attainment, unemployed TVET
women college graduates have (1/0.583 = 1.72) 72%
higher odds of getting a job after training than that of
college undergraduates, holding the other factors constant.
As for reasons for not looking for work, unemployed
TVET women graduates have (1/0.274) around 4 times
lower odds of getting employed when their reason for
not looking for work is household/family duties than for
other reasons, except schooling and no work available,
holding the other factors constant. In reference to other
reasons, the odds are also lower when the reason for not
looking for work is schooling (lower by 47%) and no work
available (lower by 43%), holding other factors constant.
The fitted model for unemployed TVET women before
the training was also found significant at 5% using the
Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. The said model
also accurately predicted 70% of the in-sample responses
with a good percentage of sensitivity and specificity
(Table 2).
DISCUSSION
Unemployment after Training
More than a quarter (28%) of TVET women graduates
remained unemployed even after the training. In fact,
half of unemployed TVET women before the training
were still unemployed after the training. A possible reason
for this could be that some of these women attended
training to enhance their skills or to satisfy their hobbies
(14.85%) and not for employment purposes. Nevertheless,
some indeed aimed to be employed after their training
(81.49%), and among those whose reason for taking the
TVET program is employment-related, only 66.64%
were employed after the training. This observation shall
be noted by the agency in addressing issues on women’s
employment rate. Moreover, we also observed around 5%
who were employed before and became unemployed after.
Reviewing the data, 92% of these TVET women graduates
left their previous job or looked for a new job, and around
48% of them were waiting for the results of their previous
application at the time of the survey.
The above-stated results of the study suggest a disconnect
with the aims of the TVET program to produce graduates
Talento et al.: Employment of Filipino Female
TVET Graduates
that have higher chances of employment. This might have
something to do with the program offerings and choices
of the enrollees. Based on the data, almost half of those
employed women in 2018 were from the tourism and
social community services sectors, comprising 31 and
18% of the population, respectively. Meanwhile, it is
apparent that among the unemployed female graduates,
many also came from the tourism sector (Figure A3).
ADB (2021) concluded that the most availed courses
of most female enrollees (i.e. garments, beauty/
cosmetics industry, secretarial work) tend to lead to “low
productivity, low-pay occupations, often involving non-
routine manual tasks.” Often, these are also career options
that are stereotypically associated with women (Illo n/d),
reflecting the prevailing rigid gendered appreciation of
different career paths. Illo (n/d) reported that there is a
striking gender gap in TVET enrollees in terms of the
programs commonly taken, with women mostly taking
community-based programs “without training regulations”
and, therefore, leading to lesser employment in the formal
economy. The lack of opportunities for such types of work
in a rapidly changing global economy might be one of the
reasons for the female enrollees not finding employment
even after their training in TVET. This suggests a need for
a recalibration of TVET program offerings that directly
address the current demands of the economy.
Factors Affecting Employment of TVET Women
Graduates
The highest educational attainment was found to be a
significant determinant of employment of TVET women
graduates. Most of the employed TVET females after
graduation were college degree holders, whereas the
highest educational attainment of most of the unemployed
TVET female graduates was junior high school. While
education is related to higher chances of employment,
there seems to be a misalignment in some instances such
as what was found in this study. It follows the general
trend that while the educational opportunities for men
and women are almost at par and that women in the
Philippines have high educational attainment, the labor
force participation is still low (UPCWGS 2021). This is
due in part to the fact that most women tend to enter the
informal economy, which allows them to have flexible
work arrangements to attend to childcare and other
domestic responsibilities. In the case of TVET graduates,
most of them enroll in community-based programs
that land them in jobs related to livelihood with low
qualifications (Illo n/d) but enable them to attend to their
childcare and/or domestic tasks.
Aside from schooling, household or family duties and
availability of work are significant factors for employment
of those who do not have work beforehand. This might be
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a possible reason for losses in labor force participation.
Capacitating the labor force of the country in middle- and
high-skill work through the TVET program, therefore,
shows that it is just one part of the solution. The other
half goes to the structural and cultural barriers to workers,
especially women, in entering the workforce. Filipino
women continue to challenge the glass ceiling that hinders
them from engaging and attaining success in their careers.
The traditional gender norms in the Philippines continue
to prescribe to women the primacy of motherhood and
puts on them the burden of domestic responsibilities, thus
making joining the workforce just secondary and more
challenging (UPCWGS 2021; Illo n/d). Hence, despite the
capacities built in women, they cannot fully utilize those
skills in gainful employment because of these barriers.
Another factor that was found significant is the reasons
for taking up a program. Those who were employed
before the program and declared employment or skill-
upgrading as their primary reasons for enrolling in the
TVET program have increased odds of employment after
the program compared to other employed enrollees with
a different reason for taking up the program. Although
they are already in the workforce, they concur that people
with more education are more employable (Shambaugh
2017). This means both the people who were already in
the labor force and the society recognize TVET programs
as an alternative provider of skills and education that they
need in just a relatively shorter span of time compared to
that of tertiary education.
The region also played a significant role in the employment
status of unemployed TVET women enrollees. The odds
of employment vary across regions for unemployed
graduates, whereas one of the highlights of the results
above was employment in the Zamboanga Peninsula
and BARMM. Although employment increased after the
training of graduates who came from the Zamboanga
Peninsula, their employment rate is still lower than the
employment rate of BARMM (refer to Table 2, with
a change rate of 129%). According to Krumm and
Strotmann (2012), regional location affects employment
due to the lower cost of production in some areas and
having R&D programs, which are also related to job
stability of the locality. They also mentioned that those
regions with “smaller average firm size” have a positive
effect on employment. Moreover, regions with high
population density have a negative effect on the job
stability of the locality. Thakuriah and Mataxatos (2000)
also supported the association of regions and employment
that can be attributed to local transportation.
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Talento et al.: Employment of Filipino Female
TVET Graduates
CONCLUSION
Closing the gender gap in employment not only means
empowering women to participate in the labor force but,
generally, it can help society in boosting its economic
status. Especially nowadays, a huge part of the population
lost their job due to the pandemic. Society needs more
pathways to facilitate employment and bounce back. Aside
from monitoring the status of employment, policymakers
need to look at the key drivers of employability to improve
the employment rate of women who pursue vocational
education.
From the results above, 52% of unemployed TVET
women before the program acquired jobs after graduation.
However, there is a huge gap in the employment
rates between graduates who were employed before
entering TVET and those who were unemployed before
the program. It can be said that the former group is
more employable than the latter group. With this,
separate models were created to see the determinants of
employment after graduation among these two groups.
Age, educational attainment, region, reasons for taking up
a program, and reasons for not looking for work showed
to be a determinant of the employability of female TVET
graduates.
Consistent with findings in the literature that education
plays a vital role in employment, TVET women graduates
were also more employable when they have at least
a college-level education. This was found true across
regions aside from the Ilocos Region. Relating to this,
the region is not a determinant of employment for those
TVET graduates who were employed before the training
but was found to have an influence on the employability
of TVET graduates who were unemployed before the
training. Interestingly, household or family duties were
found to be a significant factor in the employment of
TVET women graduates who were unemployed before
the training, along with schooling and having no work
available. For the group of female graduates employed
before the training, the model revealed that they were more
employable when their reason for taking the program is
for employment or skills upgrading.
While these determinants are important, a closer look
at other factors – particularly the structural and cultural
barriers related to gender norms – are shown to also
hinder the employability of female graduates. Literature
on the topic shows that first, the program options usually
taken by women (e.g. community-based, beauty/cosmetic
industry, etc.) often lead to low-productivity employment
given that they are usually “without training regulations.”
Their choice or nature of programs shows that women
take stereotypical roles associated with women, an issue
that is still present today because of prevailing traditional
Philippine Journal of Science
Vol. 151 No. 3, June 2022
gender norms. In relation to this, the second factor that
hinders women from entering employment despite their
TVET training is the primacy of their reproductive
roles. The Philippine society still expects women to
perform childcare and domestic roles as their primary
responsibilities, thus making entering the workforce
secondary and even more challenging. To balance gainful
employment and household responsibilities, women
choose to engage in the informal economy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The result of this study showed that the increase in female
participation in TVET programs does not necessarily
translate to employment. TVET equips women with
employable skills and some characteristics of women are
seen as determinants of their employability. The results of
this study have practical implications to improve TVET
programs. One, geographical location based on region as a
determinant of employability implies that TVET programs
can be extended to more regions to reach more enrollees
as well. Second, with regard to the lack of employment
opportunities, TESDA can forge direct partnerships with
relevant industries in order to link their graduates with
possible employment after taking TVET programs.
The above-mentioned are practical and concrete measures
that can be taken. However, larger work needs to be done
to address the social and cultural factors that are seen
as barriers to maximizing the full potential of women.
Knowing the factors that influence the employment of
TVET female graduates and contextualizing them with the
current Philippine society can aid the country in crafting
programs and policies to empower women’s employment
and labor force participation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to the National TVET Research
Agenda of TESDA for providing us with the data and
resources to conduct this study.
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APPENDICES

Table A1. Weighted distribution of 2018 TVET women graduates by employment status before and after attending a training program.
Employed (before Employed (after training) Total
training)
Yes No
Pa seb WTc Pa seb WTc Pa seb WTc
Yes 35.65 18 286,099 4.80 0.72 38,512 40.45 1.9 324,611
No 30.84 2 247,482 28.71 1.5 230,432 59.55 1.9 477,914
Total 66.49 1.7 533,581 33.51 1.7 268,944 100 –  802,525
Chi-square: 6.7451 (p-value < 0.0001)
aCell percentages; b(standard error), cweighted total

Table A2. Measure of association of employment status after training of 2018 women graduates who were employed before the training with
some factors.
Factor Coefficienta df p-value
Age 0.201 – < 0.0001**
Educational attainment 3.3418 (2, 548) 0.0361*
Region 1.6221 (16, 534) 0.0588
Program delivery mode 0.0694 (1, 549) 0.7923
Type of program 2.6205 (1, 549) 0.1061
Sector 1.6388 (12, 538) 0.0773
Scholarship program 0.0562 (1, 549) 0.8127
Reasons for taking the TESDA program 2.1827 (3, 547) 0.0891
Career assessment 0.6435 (1, 549) 0.4228
Competency assessment 0.0542 (1, 549) 0.8161
Type of provider 0.1469 (1, 549) 0.7017
Monthly gross income (before the training) 0.0452 – 0.2896
aUsing Cramer’s V except for age and income in which point biserial was used
*Significant p ≤ 0.05; **significant at p ≤ 0.01

Table A3. Weighted distribution of 2018 TVET women graduates by employment status before and after attending a training program and by
socio-demographic profile.
Socio-demographic classifi- In the labor force In the labor force Change rate
cations in ERb
Employed before the Employed after the training
training
WTa % WTa ERb % WTa ERb %
Region 
(common odds ratio by CMH = 7.5376; p-value < 0.0001)
(Breslow-Day test: 𝝌² = 19.771; p-value = 0.2307)
Ilocos Region 62,088 64.13 30,052 48.40 51,229 82.51 70.47%
CAR 20,276 71.42 7,011 34.58 13,696 67.55 95.35%
Cagayan Valley 28,745 77.16 15,088 52.49 17,773 61.83 17.80%
Central Luzon 87,225 68.74 29,312 33.61 39,120 44.85 33.46%
NCR 122,396 74.31 13,233 10.81 83,523 68.24 531.19%
CALABARZON 117,779 68.78 64,237 54.54 97,026 82.38 51.04%

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Table A3 continuation

MIMAROPA 39,173 71.97  17,264 44.07 29,466 75.22 70.67%

Bicol Region 36,513 63.6 12,741 34.89 25,150 68.88 97.39%
Western Visayas 52,535 59.79 23,751 45.21 40,436 76.97 70.25%
Central Visayas 54,830 73.24 18,632 33.98 30,003 54.72 61.03%
Eastern Visayas 35,489 69.79 17,783 50.11 24,129 67.99 35.68%
Zamboanga Peninsula 12,061 49.74 1,618 13.42 3,708 30.74 129.12%
Northern Mindanao 34,826 64.98 10,901 31.30 16,974 48.74 55.71%
Davao Region 44,028 68.47 15,765 35.81 28,028 63.66 77.79%
SOCCSARGEN 28,716 78.02 11,383 39.64 19,222 66.94 68.86%
Caraga 18,225 68.31 6,003 32.94 11,890 65.24 98.07%
BARMM 7,632 81.21 3,253 42.63 3,034 39.76 –6.73%
Philippines 802,494 68.84  324,611 40.45 533,578 66.49 64.38%
Highest educational attainment
(common odds ratio by CMH = 8.0625; p-value < 0.0001)
(Breslow-Day test: 𝝌² = 1.5423; p-value = 0.4626)
College Undergraduate 138,980 59.49 50,637 36.43 92,034 66.22 81.75%
College graduate 308,370 81.92 144,129 46.74 229,437 74.40 59.19%
Post college Graduate 19,170 90.54 16,223 84.62 18,362 95.78 13.19%
Others 336,005 61.33 113,623 33.82 193,747 57.66 70.52%
Age clusters
(common odds ratio by CMH = 7.4531; p-value < 0.0001)
(Breslow-Day test: 𝝌² = 17.437; p-value < 0.0001)
16–35 yr old 351,602 68.45 140,209 31.09 280,178 62.13 99.83%
36–65 yr old 450,923 67.22 184,402 52.45 253,403 72.07 37.42%
aWeighted total; bemployment rate; change rate = (before – after)/ before

Table A4. Logistic regression of employment status after training of 2018 women graduates who were employed before the training using
age, education, and reasons for taking the program as factors.
Factor Coefficient Odds ratio SE A 95% CI for odds ratio p-value
Intercept –1.1315 0.323 0.025 [0.307, 0.338] < 0.001**
Age 0.0643 1.066 0.001 [1.065, 1.068] < 0.001**
Reason for taking up the programa
For employment 1.0472 2.850 0.017 [2.756, 2.947] < 0.001**
For skill upgrading/ enhancement 1.5712 4.813 0.017 [4.653, 4.978] < 0.001**
Others 1.3139 3.720 0.020 [3.579, 3.868] < 0.001**
Highest educational attainmentb
Others –0.7646 0.466 0.012 [0.454, 0.477] < 0.001**
College undergraduate 0.3492 1.418 0.022 [1.358, 1.481] < 0.001**
Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness of fit test 𝝌² = 11.072; df = 8, p-value = 0.1976
Cut-off: 0.4523; sensitivity: 88.85%; specificity: 34.25%; accuracy: 87.16%
aPromotion/increase in income as reference group; bcollege graduate as reference group; **significant at p-value ≤ 0.01

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Table A5. Measure of association of employment status after training of 2018 women graduates who were unemployed before the training
with some factors.
Factor Coefficienta df p-value
Age –0.0274 – 0.573
Educational attainment 1.7633 (2, 424) 0.1727
Region 3.0303 (16, 410) < 0.0001**
Program delivery mode 2.1715 (1, 425) 0.1413
Type of program 1.9205 (1, 425) 0.1665
Sector 0.7205 (12, 414) 0.7316
Scholarship program 0.3743 (1, 425) 0.541
Reasons for taking the TESDA program 0.0616 (3, 423) 0.98
Career assessment 0.2126 (1, 425) 0.645
Competency assessment 0.1954 (1, 425) 0.6587
Type of provider 1.1969 (1, 425) 0.2746
Reasons for not looking for work 3.286 (3, 423) 0.0208*
aUsing Cramer’s V except for age and income in which point biserial was used
*Significant p ≤ 0.05; **significant at p ≤ 0.01

Figure A1. Heat map for the row percentage distribution of 2018 TVET women graduates by employment (or lack thereof), age, and
educational attainment.

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Figure A2. Heat map for the row percentage distribution of employed TVET women graduates by region, age group, and educational
attainment.

Figure A3. Heat map for the row percentage distribution of 2018 TVET women graduates by employment (or lack thereof) and sector.

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