THE youth training and employment project, YouthWork PH, officially launched its program last Thursday, October 25, in Mallberry Suites Business Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City, bringing together partners from the local government, the private sector and the academe.
Co-implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), the P1.7-billion five-year workforce development project seeks to improve access to quality training and employment opportunities by providing access to work-based training to 40,000 Filipino youth in education, employment or training (NEET) and training at least 1,000 youth NEET per year.
"What we really want to do is help the youth feel empowered, to feel that they can achieve things that they can be successful, that they have a lot of options," YouthWorks PH Chief of Party Karol Mark Yee said.
"We want to give everyone the opportunity to also choose training as a path way, that you can do training that is maybe 3 months, 6 months, one year. And that after you train, you can easily find employment. We have to understand the context of our youth. Hindi lahat ng kabataan kayang mag aral ng apat ng taon tapos walang gagawin," he added.
(Not all youth can afford to study for four years and will not be doing anything)
The project has chosen Cagayan de Oro City as its site for its first year of implementation due to the city's promising growth sectors in agriculture, banking and finance, construction, hospitality and tourism, and manufacturing, according to Yee.
At present, the project is on its mapping and designing stage, gathering the local government, private sectors and the academe together in a discussion to design a training suited to each of the five aforementioned sectors.
"And we're coordinating with the youth councils and youth organizations para they can bring us to the youth or introduce us to them," Yee said.
“We give them an opportunity to train and find employment,” he added.
Currently, the Cagayan de Oro Technical Institute has already offered 100 slots for trainees in the construction and hospitality sectors. The Skills Mastery Institute, a private trade school in the city, also committed 100 training slots in the construction and agriculture-fisheries sectors.
Yee said that after the mapping and designing, by January and February, the YouthWorks PH will be holding a career caravan in different communities or barangays to introduce the project to the youth.
"By January and February, we will go down na to the communities and talk to the youth to tell them about the project, to tell them about the opportunities and then give them the chance to already apply," Yee said.
"We are inviting companies to invest in the future of Cagayan de Oro City as we go out to engage the youth for our exciting training programs for our pioneering bath this March 2019," he added.
Apart from Cagayan de Oro, the project is also implemented in Cebu, Manila, Zamboanga, Davao, General Santos City and Iloilo in the coming months.