Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said Saturday they would ask businesses to provide information on their manpower requirements so that it could take action to improve the employability of K–12 graduates.
“We hope that our consultations with business organizations will lead to them providing us with information in advance so that once we check their manpower requirements, we can make interventions,” he told a radio interview
For now, Laguesma said the DoLE will help students upgrade their skills and strengthen its market information system so they have access to companies offering jobs.
On Wednesday, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines admitted that fresh graduates and those who finished the K–12 program were at the lower end of employers’ hiring priorities.
ECoP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said that companies prioritize employees they laid off during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also said that businesses prefer applicants with college degrees and extensive work experience.