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What is senior high school?

Senior high school (SHS) covers the last two years of the Kto12 program and includes grade 11 and 12.In SHS, students will go through a core curriculum and subjects under a track of their choice.

The first batch of Filipino students to go through Grade 11 will troop to schools in 2016. Many students and parents, though, are still unaware of a few details as regards the new senior high school system.

Matters on the country’s K-12 program remain unclear. One of them, however, refers to the specific tracks wherein students will choose the best skill for them to master.

With the new educational system required by the government, Filipinos have no other choice but to embrace it. In the first place, each one will profit from the new scheme because it follows international standard.

This article gives a detailed explanation on the senior high school’s tracks.

Apart from the core curriculum, which has eight learning areas, the new senior high school system comes with specific career tracks that seem like college courses. They include certain disciplines.

• Academic
• Arts and Design
• Sports
• Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL)

Each senior high school student must choose one track to master and base his/her choice on how he/she wants to advance after completing high school or Grade 12. Career assessment and aptitude tests and an occupational interest inventory, on the contrary, will show the student’s strengths and interests. Career advocacy programs will also help and guide them in choosing the right track for their selves.
Note, though, that school capacity, resources available in the area, and in-demand jobs in the district are just a handful of the factors to consider in offering the tracks. The tracks aim to advance the students’ specialization and help them shine in areas where they excel.

The Tracks

Since the contents of the subjects students will take in Grades 11 and 12 depend on their chosen career track, they must take extra care in making their choice.

Academic

This track prepares students who plan to pursue college education and comprises four strands.
a) ABM – Accountancy, Business, and Management
b) STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
c) HUMMS – Humanities and Social Science
d) General Academic
The next three tracks equip students with the skills needed to secure jobs in the field they want.

Arts and Design

This track covers nine subjects, eight of which require 80 hours each per semester.

Sports

This track has nine subjects, which include Safety and First Aid, Human Movement, Coaching, Sports Officiating, and Sports Leadership.

TVL

This track contains nine subjects (known as the TVL track subjects) and TESDA specialized subjects.
a) Home Economics
b) Agri-Fishery
c) Industrial Arts
d) Information and Communications Technology or ICT
These career tracks prove that the Philippines’ K12 program is likely to succeed. (http://k12philippines.com/philippines-k12-program-four-senior-high-career-tracks/)

What Track Is Best for You?

"The ABM Track is for those who plan on taking up Economics, Business Administration, Accountancy and Marketing in college."

Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) Strand - ABM (Academic) 

This strand focuses on learning the basic concepts of business and learning associated skills in other related fields like finance, management, corporate and operations. 
(http://edukasyon.ph/en/institutions/senior-high-schools?program_offering=%7CAccountancy%2C+Business%2C+and+Management+(ABM)+Strand+-+ABM+(Academic)%7C&search_type=senior_high&sort=name-d)

The ABM strand is designed to equip the students with managerial, numeracy and literacy skills necessary to meet the competencies and demands of globally competitive entrepreneurship. Courses on accounting, finance, marketing and management are taken under this strand. Students graduating from the ABM strand are expected to prepare a business plan, feasibility study or project study and undergo work immersion to allow for the application of knowledge and skills acquired in class.

The Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM) Strand of the Academic Track of Senior High School (SHS) has nine specialization subjects, namely:

Applied Economics

Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility

Fundamentals

of Accountancy,

Business, and Management 1

Fundamentals of Accountancy,

Business, and Management 2

Business Math

Business Finance

Organization and Management

Principles of Marketing

Work Immersion / Research /

Career Advocacy / Culminating Activity

WHAT IS BUSINESS MANAGEMENT?

Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it be a business, a not-for-profit organization, or government body. Management includes the activities of setting the strategy of an organization and coordinating the efforts of its employees or volunteers to accomplish its objectives through the application of available resources, such as financial, natural, technological, and human resources. The term "management" may also refer to the people who manage an organization.

Management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose objective is to study social organization and organizational leadership. Management is studied at colleges and universities; some important degrees in management are the Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) and Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) and, for the public sector, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. Individuals who aim at becoming management researchers or professors may complete the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) or the PhD in business administration or management.

There are three levels of managers, which are typically organized in a hierarchical, pyramid structure. Senior managers, such as the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or President of an organization, set the strategic goals of the organization and make decisions on how the overall organization will operate. Senior managers provide direction to the middle managers who report to them. Middle managers, examples of which would include branch managers, regional managers and section managers, provide direction to front-line managers. Middle managers communicate the strategic goals of senior management to the front-line managers. Lower managers, such as supervisors and front-line team leaders, oversee the work of regular employees (or volunteers, in some voluntary organizations) and provide direction on their work. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management)

WHAT IS ACCOUNTING?

Accounting is an information science used to collect, classify, and manipulate financial data for organizations and individuals.

Accounting is instrumental within organizations as means of determining financial stability. Accountants are responsible for determining an organizations overall wealth, profitability, and liquidity. Without accounting, organizations would have no basis or foundation upon which daily and long-term decisions could be made. The budgets for marketing activities, profit reinvestment, research and development, and company growth all stem from the work of accountants. Accounting is one of the oldest and most respected professions in the world, and accountants can be found in every industry from entertainment to medicine. It one of the most necessary lines of work on the planet.

The accounting program at the Saunders College of Business prepares students for a variety of career paths. The Saunders College of Business, as a college within RIT, places an emphasis on technology and innovation in every program we offer. Our accounting program graduates have more than just a deep rooted understading of numbers side of accounting, they are also involved in the implementation of new accounting technologies; as well as taking leadership positions within the field. (http://saunders.rit.edu/programs/undergraduate/accounting/what-is.php)

Different Types of Accountants

An Accountant is one who is skilled in keeping accounts and books of accounts correctly and properly.  An accountant makes the keeping or examination of accounts his profession[i].  Accountant, design and control the systems of accounts required for records of various transactions of business, trade, and finance.

Different types of accountants include:

Auditing is an intensive study of the records and reports of an enterprise by accounting specialists.  Auditors help to ensure firms efficiency by keeping public records accurate and confirm payment of taxes properly and on time.  Auditors analyze and communicate financial information for various entities such as companies, individual clients, and Federal, State, and local governments.  Other than carrying out the fundamental tasks of the occupation they provide information to clients by preparing, analyzing, and verifying financial documents.

Forensic accounting is a special area of practice in accountancy where accounting, auditing, and investigative skills are used to assist the court in legal matters.  Forensic accountants are also known as forensic auditors or investigative auditors.  They investigate white-collar crimes including issues like securities fraud, embezzlement and bankruptcies.

A public accountant is a general accountant who either works for an accounting firm or has his or her own private practice.  Public accountants’ daily tasks are of a wide range that includes auditing, tax and financial planning, and consulting and providing advice about compensation and benefits.  Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the statutory credential provided for qualified accountants in the U.S. for persons who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination.

A tax professional is specifically trained in the field of taxation.  The U.S. Department of Treasury empowers tax professionals to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for audits, collections, and appeals.

A financial advisor is a person who provides investment advice and financial planning services to individuals, organizations, and governments.  Usually, a financial advisor consults with clients with an intention to better their financial situations.

Accounting consultants are persons with high subject matter expertise in preparing financial reports, pro-forma financial statements and reports.  They also analyze, interpret and evaluate financial statements and reports for various regulatory and statutory authorities and internal management of organizations.  Accounting consultants can help a business with all of its financial needs.

Why does accounting matter?

Try and imagine your local grocery store sans an accounting department. At first glance, you may be thinking that they could get by because all the transactions are recorded in the registers and through other electronic means. Right, but wrong. What about all the inventory? What about the employees pay checks? What about federal, state and city taxes? What about cash flow patterns? The accounting department exists to ensure that a business isn’t losing unnecessary money, employees are being paid, obligations like taxes are correctly fulfilled, trends and patterns that effect the businesses profits and losses are being analyzed and inventory is being paid for. (https://blog.udemy.com/importance-of-accounting/)

Therefore Accounting is often called “the language of business.” Why? Because it communicates so much of the information that owners, managers, and investors need to evaluate a company’s financial performance. These people are all stakeholders in the business, which is to say they’re interested in its activities because they’re affected by them. 

In fact, the purpose of accounting is to help stakeholders make better business decisions by providing them with financial information. Obviously, you wouldn’t try to run an organization or make investment decisions without accurate and timely financial information, and it’s the accountant who prepares this information. 

More importantly, accountants make sure that stakeholders understand the meaning of financial information, and they work with both individuals and organizations to help them use financial information to deal with business problems. 

Actually, collecting all the numbers is the easy part—today, all you have to do is start up your accounting software. The hard part is analyzing, interpreting, and communicating the information. Of course, you also have to present everything clearly while effectively interacting with people from every business discipline. 

All this means that "accounting" can be defined as a system for measuring and summarizing business activities, interpreting financial information, and communicating the results to management and other decision makers.


"ACCOUNTING is possibly the most boring subject in the world. And also it could be the most confusing,but the most important."