Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 17) — The absence of human interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic affects students’ soft skills, Philip Gioca, country manager of JobStreet Philippines, said Monday.
“Human interaction ang naging nagkulang sa atin kasi nasa loob lang tayo ng bahay,” Gioca told CNN Philippines Newsroom Ngayon. “So ang lumalabas ay nagkaroon sila [students] ng culture shock pagpasok nila sa workspace.”
[Translation: We lacked human interaction since we were always in our homes. As a result, students experience culture shock when they enter the workspace.]
He stressed that human interaction consists of verbal and nonverbal interplay. He added that communication for students was limited to visual reality or virtual discussions during the pandemic.
“Yung mga bata na gumraduate at nag-aral lamang using virtual mode, pag pasok nila at ni-require sila pumunta ng opisina, marami sa kanila, ‘yung communication nila ay hindi enough o adequate o hindi masyadong na practice,” Gioca said.
[Translation: Those who graduated and only studied through the virtual mode, when they’re required to go to the office, a lot of them, their communication skills are not enough or adequate, or unpracticed.]
He also stressed that honing soft skills such as teamwork was difficult, as students were only exposed to a “virtual world” or “Zoom environment” during the pandemic.
Soft skills also include active learning, critical learning, survival skills or complex learning, resilience, flexibility, time management, communication and technology literacy.
Gioca urged students to join extracurricular activities, on-the-job training and internships to gain job experience and have an opportunity to work with other people.
The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier reported that the employment rate stood at 95.2%, with 48.8 million Filipinos employed.
However, senators also expressed alarm at the reported lack of soft skills and job readiness of fresh graduates, as revealed by the study of the Commission on Human Rights.
