BLE intensifies LMI advocacy and enhancement,hosts LMI Training in Davao City

Convening a total of 46 participants from Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional and Field Offices in Regions 9, 10, 11, 12, and Caraga, the third and last leg of the “Labor Market Information (LMI) Analysis and Report Writing Training” was conducted on 24-26 June 2015 at the Grand Regal Hotel, Lanang, Davao City. The Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) and DOLE-Regional Office No. 11 hosted the activity.Regional Director Joffrey Suyao of the host DOLE office said in his opening message that DOLE plays a major role in ensuring there is a public LMI system which produces reliable and relevant information, and that LMI is disseminated in user-friendly ways to increase the likelihood of improving the efficiency of labor markets, facilitating short and long-term matches of labor supply and demand, thus, ensuring that individuals build and renew the skill set required in the dynamic marketplace. “In addition to assembling relevant data, frontliners coming from DOLE regional and field offices, as well as the PESOs, have key roles in transforming facts about economic activity into useful LMI,” Director Suyao mentioned.The three-day activity was facilitated by LMI consultant-lecturer and former BLE Director, Mr. Virgilio V. Guillermo, with assistance from concerned BLE personnel. A capacity building activity, the training activity was conducted to enhance the frontline PESO and DOLE personnels’ capacities in interpreting and analyzing basic and pertinent LMI, enabling the them to give meaning beyond the figures/data collected and create reliable, timely reports relevant in crafting policies, career guidance and employment coaching, IEC correspondence and other materials, and other related activities.

Meanwhile at BLE, Director Dominique R. Tutay reports, “The PhilJobNet is continuously being enhanced, re-designed and -engineered as the government’s all-in job site for timely, relevant and readily accessible LMI, career guidance and occupational information, and employment coaching, catering to specific needs of a variety of groups of clients—from young jobseekers and parents, to career guidance practitioners, human resource personnel, researchers, and the like.”

Last year, the PhilJobNet launched its state-of-the-art service channels, the PhilJobNet mobile application and Job Search Kiosks. The mobile application, available in Android and iOS formats, is available for download through Google Play and Apple Store. Also, from the existing 110, additional 200 “new generation” Job Search Kiosks have been deployed in the nearest PESOs, high schools, universities and colleges, and malls nationwide to bring timely and relevant LMI closer to the jobseekers.

DOLE’s advocacy on the provision of timely, relevant, and accurate LMI and career guidance and employment coaching, as well as the tapping of information, communication, and technology (ICT) in employment facilitation services are strategic initiatives in addressing the pressing issue of job-skill mismatch in the country.

The LMI Analysis and Report Writing Training was as well conducted to 53 Luzon participants on 13-15 May 2015 at the Punta Riviera Resort Hotel, Bolinao, Pangasinan, and 48 other participants from the Visayas on 19-21 May 2015 at the Alta Cebu Village Garden Resort, Tugbungan, Pilipog, Cordova, Cebu.

CITY OF MANILA - A jobseeker during the 2015 Kalayaan

Day Job Fair browses LMI through the Job Search Kiosk.

Editorial Board

Text, Design, and LayoutContributing Writer

Bureau of Local EmploymentInformation, Education, and Communications (IEC) Team

ble.lmircgad@gmail.com(02) 527-2539

BLE conducts Gender and Development Workshop in Baguio City

As part of its initiatives and commitments to the national government’s agenda of mainstreaming Gender and Development (GAD) in the bureaucracy, BLE conducted its 1st GAD Workshop on 8-9 June 2015, at the Venus Park View Hotel, Baguio City.

“Gender refers to the specific set of characteristics that identifies the social behavior of women and men and the relationship between them,” clarified GAD focal person, Mr. Bong Soriano of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) who served as facilitator-trainer in the workshop. “Gender touches upon women and men, as well as the relationship between them and the way it is socially constructed,” he added.

As gender biases exist and these prevent people from attaining their full potentials, development is impeded. GAD focuses on the principle that development is for all. The program aims to attain institutional transformation that will lead to sustainable development with the end goal of promoting gender equality.

“Everyone in the society—female or male—has the right to equal opportunities to well-being. Women and men enjoy the same conditions for realizing their full human rights and potentials to contribute to development through decent and productive employment, as well as benefit from the results. We stand in support of GAD,” said BLE Director Dominique R. Tutay.

Representing DOLE Employability of Workers and Competitiveness of Enterprises Custer Undersecretary Reydeluz D. Conferido, Labor Attache Merriam Cuasay addressed the BLE personnel: “In the same way as we want our own workplace and set-up as an environment free of gender bias, we also put GAD’s advocacies at core in the development and implementation of our own programs for local employment.”

Bureau-wide strategic planning and team building activities among BLE’s divisions—Labor Market Information, Research and Career Guidance Advocacy Division (LMIRCGAD), Employment Service Program and Management Division (ESPMD), Employment Service Policies and Regulations Division (ESPRD) and Office of the Director (OD)—were also conducted in the afternoon of the second day.

Kalayaan 2015 Job Fairs record 26% HOTSUnder the theme “Kalayaan 2015: Tagumpay sa Pagbabagong Nasimulan, Abot Kamay na ng Bayan,” DOLE conducted its nationwide job fair activities across the country in celebration of nation’s 117th Independence Day on 12 June 2015. DOLE Regional Offices, except for regions 4A, 4B, 8, 9 and CARAGA, simultaneously conducted job fair and livelihood events in their areas.Morning of the Independence Day, Vice-President Jejomar Binay and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada led the flag raising ceremony at the Rizal Park, Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila City. DOLE Employability of Workers and Competitiveness of Enterprises Cluster Undersecretary Reydeluz D. Conferido, together with DOLE officials and partner-stakeholders, formally launched the 2015 Kalayaan Job Fair in the city.

More than one-fourth or 26% of the 14,078 total qualified job applicants nationwide were hired on-the-spot (HOTS). On the other hand, 9,596 jobseekers were requested for further assessments and interviews, and thus, may have good chances of getting placed should they perform well in said pre-qualifying tests.

Various services, including printing of resume, photocopying, and ID photography, were also provided for free during the job fair. Other government services were present—National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), PAGIBIG, and Social Security System (SSS)—to provide free documentary and clearing services to the applicants. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) also participated in the job fair providing free massage treatments and haircut.

Dir. Dominique TutayMs. Ruth RodriguezMr. Kempee Royce CruzMr. Edmund Daruca