Caraga placement rate up by 21% during 2012 Kalayaan job fair

Thursday 14th of June 2012

BUTUAN CITY, June 14 (PIA) -- The 2012 Kalayaan Job Fair conducted during the 114th celebration of the Philippine Independence Day here recorded a high placement rate of 21 percent, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Caraga Regional Director Ofelia Domingo reported.

In her report to Labor Secretary Rosalina Baldoz, Dir. Domingo said that 393 out of 521 registered applicants were qualified and referred, while 362 applicants were interviewed. She also reported that 76 job applicants were hired on the spot.

"There were a total of 21 local companies and nine overseas recruitment agencies that participated in the job fair. They offered a total of 26,242 job vacancies to the applicants," Domingo said in her report.

Meanwhile, as part of the job fair, Domingo said the DOLE regional office entered into a memorandum of agreement with the local government of Agusan del Norte, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and two private companies - EMCO and Equi-parco - where the latter will further train workers who do not meet the skills requirement of these two private companies, although having TESDA certifications.

The EMCO and Equi-parco have been identified by the DOLE regional office as companies with hard-to-fill vacancies.

"There will be 45 workers: 20 auto electrician and 15 auto mechanics for EMCO and 15 dump truck drivers for Equi-parco who will receive the enhanced training, the cost of which will be shouldered by the Agusan del Norte provincial government amounting to some P1 million," Domingo said.

After the training, EMCO and Equi-parco assured the workers of regular employment.

"This arrangement is the first of its kind in Caraga. There is no TESDA-accredited training provider on these skills in the region, thus only a Certificate of Competency (COC) will be issued to the subject trainees," she said.

"As we go along, we will identify more companies and encourage them to enter into the same arrangement," she added, saying that the city government of Butuan has expressed interest and is willing to be part of the project, even offering the use of the city's available equipment and an initial funding of P1 million.

Baldoz, on the other hand, hailed the initiative of the DOLE Caraga in the signing of the agreement.

"This is the kind of convergence and public-private partnership that could help us address the problem on jobs mismatch, specifically on skilled work," Baldoz said. (RER/NCLM/DOLE-Caraga/PIA 13-Caraga)