Senior High School Immersion Students, DepEd Adapt to COVID-19

The author is Teacher I at San Mateo Elementary School, Arayat East Jeffry L. Cabicungan District.

Work Immersion is one of the key features of the Senior High School (SHS) Curriculum that is designed to acquaint Senior High School learners with the workplace, stimulate employment and use their skills in actual work settings to enhance their competence. It provides 80-320 hours of hands-on experience of work simulation to Grade 12 learners under the supervision of the School Head, Work Immersion Focal Person, and Partner Industry. It provides opportunities for learners to apply the competence they have learned in school, to experience the fundamental methodologies of a specific job using simple tools, equipment, and documents. At the same time, the workplace becomes the venue for work-immersion learners to learn more about their chosen specialization and grow more as professional individuals. And one of the challenges during this pandemic is the delivery of quality basic education and ensuring that SHS learners have the opportunity for work immersion and hands-on training. And to adapt to the new normal, the DepEd released the Guidelines for Work Immersion Implementation During Crisis Situations. This guideline provides different models and schemes to choose from and adapt to every school for work immersion without sacrificing the standards of education, safety, and security of the learners and teachers. For Academic Track: Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) can do a business simulation with four models to choose from; for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) can do a capstone project, while for Humanities and Social Science (HumSS) and General Academic Strand (GAS) can produce a creative portfolio. And for Arts and Design, Sports and TVL Tracks, four schemes were suggested. It can be "in-school" where the school provides a mock work environment and given its available facilities; "home-based," where learners perform the activities at home and will be monitored regularly by the work immersion teachers; "community-based," where schools make arrangements with local government units or non-government organizations to provide the necessary environment; and "school-industry partnership" where a school and partner institution may provide the needed environment, but physical distancing is observed at all times in consonance with health and safety protocols mandated by the government.