SANTIAGO CITY—Six government agencies led by the Department of Labor and Employment – Regional Office No. 2 (DOLE-2) on May 6-8 convened the first regional career guidance advocacy congress in the region in a hope to address the mismatch between available skills and labor demand.

The congress, which was conducted at the University of La Salette in Santiago City, was participated by a total of 194; 159 Guidance Counselors from public and private schools, 12 Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Managers, and 23 coming from the 6 partner agencies.

DOLE-2 Regional Director, Atty. Sixto T. Rodriguez, Jr. thanked the participants for taking the time to attend the activity.

“This congress aims to capacitate you in the formulation of programs that would guide your students in choosing the right course that would guarantee high employability after graduation,” Atty. Rodriguez told participants.
He also cited the efforts of the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Cagayan Valley School Counselors, Inc. for helping organize the congress.

Also, Visitaciondelos Santos, President of the Cagayan Valley School Counselors, Inc., expressed her grateful appreciation to the DOLE and its partner agencies in the conduct of the first regional career congress.

“Guidance Counselors can mold lifetime decisions of youth that will make them happy and productive. But based on DepEd data, there are onlyabout a hundredof Guidance Service Providers in public schools serving hundreds of thousands of students in Region 2. Our tribe must increase,” delos Santos said.

Dr. Luzviminda Guzman, Chairman, Board of Guidance Counseling of PRC congratulated the DOLE-2 and its partners agencies in the conduct of the congress.

“Region 2 is the first region to conduct regional career congress as an offshoot of the national career congress that was conducted last year. It only shows that you are serious in guiding and forming the minds of the youth and give them the needed support that will enable them to prepare for the world of work,” Guzman stated.

In region 2, for the first quarter of this year, DOLE-2 was able to conduct 22 job fairs in partnership with local government units and higher educational institutions. A total of 15,661 job vacancies were solicited in some 282 establishments. Registered job applicants totaled to 3,524 and merely 169 were hired-on-the-spot. The low job fairs turn-out could be attributed to job-skills mismatch.

Meanwhile, DOLE-2 ARD Elpidio B. Atal, Jr. told participants of the career congress to help trim down the glaring job-skills mismatch.

“The DOLE is spearheading this activity because of the problem on job-skills mismatch. There are job vacancies that are hard to fill up because of unavailable skills in the labor market. With this congress, I hope youcan properly guidehigh school students in selecting college or vocational courses that they pursue in order to get better jobs or engage in self-employment undertakings required by the economy,” Atal said.

On the other hand, Jenaro Valencia, Guidance Counselor fromIsabela thanked the DOLE-2 for spearheading the conduct of the first regional career guidance advocacy congress.

“This congress is very helpful to us, Guidance Counselors. The information provided to us by the six partner agencies including the invited resource persons will surely give us more confidence in guiding our students on what options to take after graduating in high school. I hope there will be a second regional career congress,” Valencia stated.

Topics discussed during the congress were careers in the sectors of business process outsourcing in Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, agriculture, semi-conductor, health, and tourism. The government interventions on career guidance like K to 12 by the DepEd, priority courses on higher education by CHEd, career path in the trade skills by TESDA, career path in the science and technology by DOST, career guidance advocacy by PRC, and best practices by some highereducationalinstitutions were likewise presented.