Career materials development project

Abstract

The Career Materials Development Project (CMDP) was started within the Graduate Guidance Center of De La Salle University, a private university in Manila, to help bridge the widening gap between actual employment opportunities in the Philippines and outputs of the nation's formal education system. In the course of its work, the Graduate Guidance Center had uncovered several possible ways of dealing with the country's problems of educated unemployment, of oversupply in some disciplines, and of severe undersupply in others. One method identified was to give high school graduates more information to help them make enlightened career choices. For this purpose, the development of career materials was essential. Accordingly, a half-private, half-governmental foundation, the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) funded the Graduate Guidance Center to develop career materials. In 1972, with seed money from FAPE, the Center undertook an initial five-month experiment in career materials' production. At the end of this period, it felt ready to engage in a fullscale, three-stage project to develop a set of materials (Stage 1); field test, evaluate, and refine these materials (Stage 2); and then distribute them widely and ensure their mass utilization (Stage 3). A final Stage 4, greater mass distribution and development of still more materials, was also later requested by FAPE. Because of the broad scope of the project, the smaller semi-private FAPE persuaded the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC), a larger governmental agency within the Department of Labor, to take over funding of the project. Stages 1 and 2 took place in 1973-74, with a number of delays and midstream modifications, at De La Salle University. For these first two stages, FAPE acted as the middleman through which funds were channeled from NMYC to the project team at De La Salle. In fact, funds promised for release according to formal Memoranda of Agreement were not initially released by NMYC. First De La Salle, and then FAPE, ended up advancing project expenses to the team, only to be reimbursed by NMYC almost a year behind schedule. As a result, FAPE recommended that De La Salle deal with NMYC directly for Stage 3, scheduled to start in March 1975, and withdrew as go-between and interim funder of the project. In the meantime, Stage 3 had been expanded to include, besides distribution and utilization of previous outputs, the production and field testing of an entire second batch of materials as well. The negotiations and funding releases between NMYC and De La Salle were also the source of some delays, especially when actual mass printing was done by another government agency, the National Media Production Center. Placing the three stages of the Career Materials Development Project within the framework of the integrated project cycle, this case history follows closely the negotiations among a private university, a quasigovernmental foundation, and an agency in a government ministry regarding a project that changed both shape and scope several times in the course of its lifetime. Actual project documents--proposals, contract of services, and terminal reports--are provided in the Appendices for additional information.