DOLE tasked to address job mismatch

Following President Arroyo's order to raise the level of the country's educational system to world standards, the Department of Education was tasked to address the problem on job mismatch and have specific plans and programs for education development.

At present, DepED is targeting half a million public school teachers to undergo virtual training through the Cyber Education project.

DepED Secretary Jesli Lapus said through Cyber education, we are bringing our teachers from all over the country closer to quality teacher training activities and materials.

We will ensure that all our teachers are provided the much-needed trainings they need to improve teaching and student learning, he said.

Secretary Lapus has also vigorously pushed for the strengthening of "tech-voc" education and trainings under the supervision and control of the department.

The move came with the gathering of government figures which showed that there were more than half a million blue collar jobs not being filled due to a shortage of skilled workers in the country while millions remain unemployed.

"We have to address what we call as the 'job mismatch'. Out of the 2.6 million unemployed Filipino, around 1.1 million are college graduates.

"But at the same time, we have 650,000 tech-voc jobs available in the local market, and we cannot fill in the vacancies because our tech-voc job applicants lack the required tech-voc skills," Lapus said.

Results of the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE), the latest administered by DepED showed that majority of high school batch 2007 are not fit for college and should take the technical and vocational track.

Lapus expressed the DepEd's hope that students and parents will take advantage of the NCAE in charting their future after high school graduation.

"Students need to be given career counseling support and parents need to be informed and re-educated to appreciate viable alternatives to the college diploma." Lapus said.

The NCAE had four major components that sought to determine the aptitude of examinees in general scholastics, technical-vocational, entrepreneurial skills, and non-verbal ability.

The test also had a fifth part that questioned examinees on their occupational interest. Aptitude for college was mainly measured by the general scholastics aptitude (GSA) test of the NCAE which carried 220 items.

The technical-vocational aptitude test had 50 items, the entrepreneurial skills test had 30 items and the non-verbal ability test had 30 items. (PIA XI)- Rose Palacio