For improved opportunities

City OSYs get career

Readiness programs

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol May 24 (PIA) – Not leaving the out-of-school youth run out of opportunities, Tagbilaran City partners with stakeholders to implement mock job interviews to prepare the city and Bohol’s vulnerable youth into getting their share of the employment opportunities often taken by their regularly school counterparts.

This as City mayor Jane Yap and stakeholders signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) institutionalizing the Employment and Livelihood Program, for out of school youth (OSY).

Part of the MOA is the institutionalization of the career readiness program for the youth, as a major initiative of the city’s Youth Development Alliance (YDA) to level the playing field in employment opportunities for the formally schooled and those in the Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) as implemented by the Department of Education.

Here, the city and the stakeholders commit to regularly hold career guidance seminars with mock interviews for ASL Senior High School learners who are on the employable ages, support entrepreneurship mentoring with the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Junior Chamber International Boholana Kisses, Bohol Sandugo Jaycees, Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants, the City Public Employment Service Office and the People Management Association of the Philippines in Bohol.

The commitments include the private sector sharing to the ALS-SHS technical information on preparing for landing jobs through mock interview sessions, to boost applicant’s confidence and competitiveness.

Developed as an offshoot of the interventions which the city in its USAID funded Opportunity 2.0 Program set for OSYs in Tagbilaran as well as across 14 cities in the Philippines, the MOA signing is also in support of existing mechanisms in the Philippines and push for positive youth development.

Among those equipped after the mock interviews with leading entrepreneurs in Bohol was Gerwyn Mae Delusa of Manga District here.

The eldest in a family of six siblings, Gerwyn, has to drop from Grade 8, and balanced work by selling fish in their family stall and taking care of her blind lola.

Hearing of the DepED ALS, she enrolled to catch up and a whole world of opportunity opened for her when the City SWDO got her in their list until she got into the Pag-asa Youth Association of the Philippines where she was sent to national summits and took countless benefits.

Now with a new skill: up-cycling plastic, its operation, something that can land her a good job, which impressed her job interviewers.

Meanwhile, Joseph Christian Lobregas who is now 27, thought flunking out in formal school in 2016 was the end of his hope.

Enrolling at the ALS in Antequera in 2019, the pandemic foiled his attempt at graduation, which added more of his reasons to sulk at.

Caught up in thick depression for what happened to his life, he started to pick up the pieces by getting blue collar skills in Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s (TESDA) scholarships in bread and pastry, driving and massage services, which he obtained NC 11 ratings.

Now back at the ALS equivalent to senior high school, his skills has allowed him chances to employment slots.

The mock interview I had last year was a great start and it introduced me into the world of job interviews which I attended in government sponsored job fairs, he said.

He however is eyeing at a job on a ship: as a Ship Catering Service worker, something that he learned after an online stint at a maritime training facility.

From here, it’s another catering training in Cebu, before he is set to peek into the sights of his dream job via the ALS.

His training and exposure to the complex world of preparing to land at jobs which were available to him in Tagbilaran City, was something he keeps as an ace, he said. (PIAbohol)

RED FLAGGED. With the OSYs already redflagged as the second chances citizens when seeking jobs, the City government is now making sure that they get better opportunities in employment competitiveness by implementing programmed career readiness activities that equip these productive youth with skills at par with the regularly schooled. (PIABohol)

PUTTING UP INSTITUTIONS. To make sure of its sustainability, City Mayor Jane Yap signs a MOA with stakeholders committing to level the field in job seeking with programs opened for the ALS trained and the formally schooled to get them equal job chances through career and technology trends exposures. (PIABohol)