some of the provisions of the National Apprenticeship Act of 1957, such as in terms of making employment more accessible for interns, allowing greater involvement of industry in identifying apprenticeship occupations and in developing standards and curricula, and standardizing an allowance for interns, which is not closely monitored by the DOLE that supposedly promoted apprenticeship programs nationwide. Matching of teachers to SHS programs 154. With a shortage of teachers attending to different learners, teachers and learners suffer. Although there is a lower turnout of enrollees in the current school year compared to the previous school year according to DepEd data,186 there are still not enough teachers for junior and senior high school. On the one hand, the teachers have to make extra preparations and teach beyond their competencies. Some are possibly unqualified to teach certain subject matters, thus, reducing their effectiveness in teaching and threatening the students’ ability to learn. Lack of career guidance programs and guidance counselors 155. Although DepEd has a Senior High School Career Guidance Program and has allowed even unregistered and unlicensed career and employment guidance counselors to conduct career advocacy activities for secondarylevel students, there are still not enough guidance counselors in public schools and state universities due to unappealing compensation and workload. The developmental career orientation programs, such as those by GuidanceNGO, and career-assistance programs through online webinars in the universities are timely and helpful, but these have limitations as they are not widely publicized and not regularly conducted. So, students, particularly in public schools, are ill-informed as they are left to decide which SHS track to pursue based on little guidance they receive. Limited internship/OJT options 156. While employers offer internship programs, as do international youth organizations, which also link students to local companies and stakeholders, the issue is the number of slots available or offered and the kind of internship being offered to the students. State universities and local colleges are at a disadvantage because they do not provide work immersion opportunities to different SHS tracks, unlike private universities, which offer academic track and arts and design tracks other than the techvoc track. Lack of guidelines on internship/OJT programs 157. 186 Because of the absence of a Bureau of Apprenticeship under DOLE, the standards and guidelines set in the National Apprenticeship Law are not properly implemented and supervised. Irregularities in wages, working conditions, and duration, as well as abuse of apprentices or learners supra note 175. 57