DOLE regional offices start career guidance for new grads

As graduating college students prepare to join the work force at this time of the year, the Department of Labor and Employment has started career guidance efforts for them. The DOLE said its Metro Manila and Central Luzon units are guiding college graduates on "skills-fit" employment as graduation draws near. “At this time of the year, the conscious effort and collaboration of our regional offices with our local partners and employment facilitators, which includes our network of Public Employment Service Office (PESO) officers and guidance counselors, must be strengthened to intensify our career and employment counseling to students to effectively assist them in making wise and excellent career decisions,” DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said. Meanwhile, the DOLE Regional Office III (Central Luzon) conducted last week a career guidance coaching seminar to 967 third- and fourth-year high school students from four public high schools in Guagua, Pampanga. DOLE Central Luzon Director Raymundo Agravante said the career seminar encourages future graduates to educate and familiarize themselves with the right market signals toward careers with high employability after graduation. For jobseekers, he said the DOLE wants them to avail of the DOLE’s employment facilitation services to enable them to find the right job compatible with their interest, values, and abilities. Agravante said the DOLE Pampanga Field Office and PESO facilitated discussions on the steps in choosing career paths and courses for prospective college entrants. “We oriented the students on the courses recommended by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). For those not going to college, we oriented them on skills training and technical-vocational courses offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). These courses will serve as a guide for them to know what they should take in relation to what our labor market needs,” Agravante said. Pampanga PESO Managers Eloida Samonte and Jonathan Lintag were the speakers at the career seminar. Guagua Mayor Ricardo Rivera, Vice Mayor Anthony Twaño, and other local officials expressed support to the activity by attending the event. In Metro Manila, the DOLE National Capital Region  and its six DOLE-NCR Field Offices also jump started their career guidance campaign by partnering with the Career Advocates, Life Coaches and Mentors (CALM) Network and PESO Association of Metro Manila (PAMM). DOLE NCR Director Alan Macaraya said the strengthened ties between DOLE NCR’s guidance counselors and PESO networks led to 436 career guidance seminars conducted, a 223.59 percent accomplishment rate on its target of 195 seminars in 2011. “This year, we are doubling our efforts as more graduates and future workforce entrants increase,” Macaraya said. For their part, officers and representatives from CALM and PAMM joined the DOLE NCR in a career and employment coaching consultative workshop to draw out action plans towards collaborative efforts to intensify LMI dissemination among career guidance implementers and players. Representatives from the CHED, TESDA, and Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) joined the workshop. At the consultative workshop, the DOLE and its partners discussed some of the crucial concerns of graduating students, such as:

• involving parents on children’s career choice
• guiding students’ decisions as early as third year high school
• understanding and matching the student’s traits or interest, values, and abilities with careers in which these strengths can be best utilized.

Baldoz called for an extensive and continuous implementation of career coaching. "We have to continually educate the country’s future workforce about current labor market demands, signals, and available opportunities that every worker and job seeker should anticipate and consider in their choice of career," she said. — LBG, GMA News