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In a
third world country like the Philippines, having a stable and
decent-paying job is already considered by many as a blessing. Since
birth, we were all conditioned by our parents to strive toward one goal:
to finish schooling and get good employment. Over many generations this
piece of parental advice sounded so clever that very few people ever
considered alternatives to a life-long career of being employed by
someone else. Indeed, the paradigm is clear and simple: if you earn a
degree and get a good job, your future is assured.
We
are now beginning to feel the pinch of such a ‘give me a job’
mentality. Unemployment has always been a perennial problem in this
country, but maybe the worst is yet to come. It wouldn’t take a genius
to understand why. If everyone in this country simply wants to get a
job, then who will give it to them? Job creation should be our foremost
concern. Without it, there will be no jobs to give out, no matter how
many people want to work for an honest living.
The
only reason we’ve been getting by is because of the many job
opportunities abroad. Already this job market is shrinking, with the
global economic slump we’re in and the rise in English-speaking but
lower-paid Asians so eager to take the jobs of our OFW’s away from
them.
In
the 70’s, a big chunk of our labor exports to the Middle East are
engineers. Now, even Filipinos with engineering degrees would take on a
menial job abroad, if that would exceed his earning potential here by
just a few thousands of pesos. This tells me that the quality of jobs
available to OFW’s has likewise declined over the years. It won’t be
long before we realize that there aren’t enough overseas jobs to go
around anymore.
The
high-tech semiconductor industry is not an exception. Fierce business
competition has compelled semiconductor companies to do their business
where the cost of doing business is lowest. Seeing companies fold up
their operations in one country and setting it up in another within a
span of a few months is no longer uncommon. The Philippines has started
to experience this, unfortunately.
We
can all feel sorry that this is happening, but there’s really very
little that we can do once the top corporate decision-makers have
elected to move. This is because we don’t own these businesses. We are
at the mercy of the global manufacturing VP who thinks that assembling
parts in China is cheaper, or the global sales VP who thinks that he can
sell more products in China than any other country. To them, if going
to China would earn the company more dollars, then going to China it is.
And
that’s because they own the businesses.
Now
imagine the scenario wherein we own the businesses. We still need to be
competitive, of course, but at least we can give ourselves the chance
and time we need to make things work. Our destiny is determined by how
we see things, not by how people abroad think. Instead of local
executives trying to convince corporate VP’s not to take their factories
apart, we’ll have local executives strategizing on how to beat the
competition. Failed operations will only fold up when these business
leaders have exhausted all means to save the company, but not before
that.
Eventually though, we will all learn how to run these businesses that we
own. Once we’ve done so, then it will be us making the decisions that
affect the lives of our countrymen. We will decide where to build a
factory, what products or services to sell, and whom to hire. Then we
can say that the job security of our countrymen is in our own hands.
To
make this a reality, we need a paradigm shift - from being a country of
employees, to a country of entrepreneurs. Instead of telling our
children to study so they’ll get a good job, we should tell our children
to study very hard so they can be presidents of their own companies.
They should learn to be entrepreneurs at an early age. Let them create
products that they can sell to the public even before they finish high
school. Train them to identify products and services with strong local
demand, and to come up with the right products and services to answer
these needs.
Thus,
while in elementary children like Pepe and Pilar will be renting out
comic books; in high school they will be selling novelty items; in
college they will be selling software; after graduation they will have
an electronics design company; and ten years after that, a large
electronics manufacturing company. Such a company will employ at least
100 people, but potentially a thousand or more. So Pepe and Pilar,
trained from childhood to be entrepreneurs, will then have created
enough jobs for a hundred others.
Now
imagine if we just have 200 thousand Pepe’s and Pilar’s in our
elementary and high schools today. At present, that’s just a small
percentage of the total number of students in the Philippines. But a
generation from now they will be giving 20 million other Filipinos job
security.
Most
of us have Pepe’s and Pilar’s in our homes. If we give them the right
schooling and training now, they will give jobs to a hundred others when
they grow up, not to mention a good life for themselves and their
families. That will then be our legacy to our children and fellow
Filipinos.
A
hundred jobs from Pepe and Pilar.
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