THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) is interested to know where senior high graduates are now and whether they have actually landed a job after graduation.
Dole 7 Director Salome Siaton said they want to know the placement rate of senior high school graduates who opted to work.
“What type of industry are they engaged with? These questions will be answered if agencies and groups concerned will do evaluation, assessment and tracer on their graduates, which will be a very important tool in re-visiting the effectiveness of the senior high school program if there is a need to in the future,” Siaton told Sunstar Cebu.
She said this will have a big implication on the Dole’s move to address the perennial problem of job skills mismatch facing the region and the entire country.
Siaton said during meetings of the Industry Tripartite Council in Education, one of the vital areas floated was an assessment to be conducted by the respective educational institutions on the placement rate of senior high school graduates.
During the Labor Day Jobs Fair on Wednesday, May 1, conducted by Dole, there were 206 applicants who were hired on the spot, but only nine senior high school graduates were among them.
Siaton said the positions for the 206 applicants are that of cashiers, sales clerks, housekeeping, baggers, call center agents and room attendants.
In Cebu, the Provincial Capitol said 168 job seekers were hired on the spot during the local jobs fair held at the Capitol Social Hall also last Wednesday.
According to the Provincial Government’s website, 53 of those that were immediately hired were males. The rest were females.
Some 477 qualified applicants almost got hired but they would have to undergo a final interview and an employer’s approval.
Public Employment Service Office (Peso) labor and employment officer Julius Chua said 41 companies participated in the event, which had 983 applicants.
These included Aboitiz Construction Group Inc. Ace Hardware Philippines Inc., Asian Marine Transport Corp., Bench, Beneluxe Trading Corp., Bo’s Coffee Inc., Brutus Food System Inc., Carlos A. Gothong Lines Inc., Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital and Cebu Mitsumi Inc., among others.
Around 5,021 jobs were up for grabs at the Capitol during Labor Day, which included 1,098 slots for wholesale and retail trade representatives and some 1,071 slots for manufacturing services.
Some 965 jobs were for construction workers, 964 vacancies were for information and communication services, 364 for health and social work, 279 for accommodation and food services, 178 for transportation and storage work and 108 for financial and insurance activities.
In a related development, Peso also held simultaneous jobs fair in the towns of Balamban and Moalboal on Saturday, May 4.
The events were held at the towns’ municipal gyms.
Eighteen local companies joined in Moalboal, while more than 20 firms participated in Balamban.