DepEd: Career assessment exam moved to Sept 28

08/27/2011 | 08:56 AM

The date of the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) has been moved from August 31 to September 28, the Department of Education said over the weekend.

DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro said the NCAE will now be administered for third-year high school students both in public and private secondary schools.

“We deem it better to administer the NCAE to Third Year high school students to give them sufficient time for comprehensive career guidance before they enter the tertiary level," said Luistro in a news release on the government portal.

Also expected to take the NCAE are Fourth Year high school students applying for scholarship programs of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

NCAE is also open to out-of-school youth and Accreditation & Equivalency (A & E) test passers.

Under DepEd Order No. 28, fourth-year students who will take the NCAE for CHED and TESDA scholarship should belong to the top 10 percent of each secondary high school regardless of school size.

They should also have a general weighted average of 80 percent in Third Year and should come from a family whose gross annual income is not more than P300,000.

Parents must sign a letter of intent signifying that they are interested in applying for the CHED/TESDA scholarship.

“The NCAE is an assessment of students’ aptitudes and skills and estimates what field or discipline the student can excel in. It is nondiscriminatory for people who have aptitude for technical-vocational and entrepreneurial courses," the DepEd said.

The NCAE results will provide a guide on the interest and career inclination of the student, whether it is technical-vocational, entrepreneurial, or a full college education course.

“This way, parents and students will be guided on what career track is best to take after high school graduation, and we want to remind people that the result of the NCAE is not mandatory but recommendatory," Luistro said.

Also, the DepEd said the NCAE is an important tool of the government to address the job mismatch, cut unemployment rate, and reverse the local “brain drain" phenomenon.

It said a large number of college graduates fail to find appropriate employment suited for the course they finished.

This has resulted in unemployment and oversupply of college graduates in white-collar jobs while resulting in shortages in skilled manpower. — LBG, GMA News