Dentists, social workers needed

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

THE Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) underscored the need for more dentists, optometrists, nutritionist-dietitians, guidance counselors, mining engineers, geologists, social workers, medical technologists, pharmacists, metallurgical engineers, librarians, physical therapist, occupational therapist and psychologists.

PRC chairperson Teresita Manzala said Tuesday while some professions are now suffering from an oversupply of licensed professionals such as teachers, nurses and criminologists, “many other courses have been undersubscribed in the past years.”

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

There’s need to inform the public of what courses and professions may be considered by graduating students and their parents for the incoming year and the years after, she added.

The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) was earlier urged to monitor and conduct surveys on specific course offerings of tertiary educational institutions to address job-skills mismatch and trim down the increasing number of the unemployed.

“We should realize that the mismatch between our graduates and our jobs would result in low productivity and low productivity means low wages,” Ilonggo Senator Franklin Drilon said, adding that “job mapping is vital in determining in-demand careers until 2016 and the specific disciplines that a student/s should enroll in.”

He added that Dole should coordinate with the PRC and the Commission on Higher Education so that courses, which would produce graduates who cannot or have low probability of employment, could be regulated.” (CGC)