By Anna Valmero
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA— Adding two more years to the elementary and high school education would help reduce the country's unemployment rate, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE).
The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), together with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Education (DepEd) and the latter's attached agency the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA),issued a program to address the prevailing jobs mismatch in the ten priority labor sectors of the country.
“We ought to make our education and training curriculum more suitable to industry needs. This will be achieved through the K+12 modeling program and review of higher education and training curriculum,” DoLE Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said.
The K+12, consisting of one year in kindergarten, six years in grade school and six years in high school (four years in junior high and two years in senior high), will be implemented starting June.
Education and training curriculum review is one of the four programs that seek to reduce the unemployment rates in the country, alongside the development of a Philippine Qualifications Framework, career guidance advocacy, and optimal use of the Phil-Jobnet.
“The convergent programs will address jobs mismatches in the sectors of information communications technology and outsourcing, semiconductor and electronics, infrastructure, tourism, agriculture and fisheries,” Baldoz said.
Baldoz said the success of the K+12 lies in reforming the basic education curriculum and in recognition of the importance of early childhood care and basic education to get trainees towards quality Philippine Technical Vocational Education and Training.
In senior high school, DoLE will tap business organizations and foreign chambers of commerce and industries to consider K+12 graduates for employment and training.
“There will be a matching of competency requirements and standards so 12-year basic education graduates will qualify with employer requirements,” Baldoz said.
The DoLE and its partner agencies will tailor-fit curriculum to develop priority skills to qualify for jobs and the regular review and updating of the basic curriculum.
Prospective graduates of the K+12 program and the public in general can also avail of the career guidance advocacy program to know the hot jobs, in-demand and hard-to-fill occupations, and be guided by career industry data and labor market intelligence.
For this year, each region will get P150,000 to hold career advocacy and P20 million in continuing technical assistance to the Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs).
The DoLE targets to offer 1.2 million jobs for PESOs. There are currently 64,297 job vacancies posted on its job website Phil-Jobnet.
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