LAST year, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) advised incoming college students to go for so-called priority courses which in their opinion (shared by the Department of Labor and Employment, the National Economic Development Authority, and associations of colleges and universities) would lead to well-paying jobs because graduates of these courses were in demand. Among the CHED recommended college courses under the Information Technology category were multi-media arts and animation.
In fact, a recent Labor Market Study by the Department of Labor and Employment says that web designers and animators will be in demand until 2020. Apparently, the problem is that there aren’t enough applicants with the right skills and qualifications to actually fill this demand.
I can relate.
The traditional notion of “voter education” as being a simple matter of locking people in a room and repeatedly emphasizing the importance of the right of suffrage is fading fast. More and more studies, however, show that people respond better to less rigid forms of communication—particularly those that leverage modern technology. Remember when the introduction of video into classrooms was all the rage? Well, even educational videos are now becoming old hat. Today, the cutting of education— especially voter education—belongs to info-graphics, social video, and even memes. In a word: multi-media.
Which gives me a hell of a headache.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) isn’t a young organization and the available job positions are largely anachronistic. The vagaries of government employment policies exacerbate the situation by making it difficult to upgrade these positions, such that we still have plantilla items like “Arts and Crafts Helper,” when we ought to have multi-media artists and social media specialists.
With more than a third of the voting population coming from the youth sector, the battle for the electorate’s attention—and thus, comprehension—is inexorably moving away from exclusive reliance on face-to-face seminars and the pen-and-paper paradigm of the arts and crafts helper, towards the marriage of digital technology with more traditional art forms.
Without a doubt, this multi-media paradigm is what voter education needs if it is to truly make an impact with the electorate of today. Infographics that deliver more information in one glance than an entire hour’s worth of lecturing; digital short movies that are so entertaining they get shared endlessly, carrying their educational payload, as it were, to more people than would fit in any auditorium; and audio-visual presentations that can be uploaded online and replayed on demand, to any audience, anywhere in the country.
There are enlightened amateurs in the Comelec trying to achieve these things, certainly, but nothing replaces trained professionals.
According to filmmaker Ryan Abeledo, who is also the Chairperson of the Multimedia Arts program of iAcademy—a college that focuses on business, computing and design—there is a demand for multimedia artists because their skills are useful in any field, including advertising, journalism, architecture, film and entertainment. And, might I add, government communications—particularly voter education. Abeledo knows his stuff too. Apparently, about 96 percent of his program’s graduates land jobs almost immediately. Except that none of those jobs seem to be with the Comelec, which isn’t exactly a surprise.
According to a Department of Labor and Employment study in 2012, art directors have the highest-paying jobs in the Philippines with an average possible income of about seventy-thousand pesos a month—hardly the pay scale of a government institution.
Rather ironically funny, if you think about it. This kind of successful and lucrative career as a multi-media artist is actually possible now in a way that it never was. Artists no longer need to rely on selling canvasses and finished pieces; they can use their talents in the corporate setting—in fact, the industries are in need of artists. Opportunities do not lack for anyone interested in making a career out of what might have been just another hobby. All they need is the right sort of training to hone their skills to a competitive edge, and a push in the right direction.
Hopefully, someone will push them towards government service.
So, there’s the rub. This palpable lack of uniquely 21st century skills – for lack of a better term—significantly affects the Comelec’s ability to effectively communicate with the public it serves. This is a serious handicap that, to my mind, is every bit as crucial to the Comelec’s efforts to live up to its mandate. Good communications, after all, is the bedrock of credibility, and credibility is the beating heart of any electoral management body.
International book giving day
BY the way, while most people are looking forward to the 14th of February as Valentine’s Day, not enough people know that tomorrow is also International Book Giving Day. I suggest mashing the two together and, instead of chocolates, giving your significant other a book.