DOLE Regional Office No. 11 Director Joffrey Suyao has reported to Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz that the regional office had organized Davao City’s career guidance counselors into an association.

The move, Director Suyao, explained was part of the regional office’s strategies for the career guidance advocacy program, the third convergent program envisioned to address the mismatch between jobs and the skills that compound the problem of unemployment.

“We need to work with our career guidance counselors if we are to lick the jobs-skills mismatch. With our guidance conselors now organized, we would be more effective in delivering our career guidance services, such as the dissemination of labor market information,” Director Suyao said.

The Region XI Guidance Counselors Network, was formed after the regional office conducted an orientation for and training of 150 guidance counsellors from the tertiary schools in the different provinces of Davao Region.

The orientation covered the JobsFit Project: DOLE 20202 Vision, and a discussion of the results of a survey of Davao’s major industry’s hard-to-fill jobs and the available courses offered by the region’s universities. The survey showed that most job positions in the various industries could not be filled up because these require graduate-workers possessing college courses not offered in the region.

The DOLE also trained the career guidance counsellors using a career counseling module they could use in preparing students to become productive members of the labor force after graduation.

One of the participants said the training is a big help to career guidance counsellors as it will enhance their capacities in advocating career coaching and the linkages created with stakeholders have helped them in gaining steps and strategies in the advocacy for career coaching.

“Ngayon, alam na namin kung anong pamamaraan ang gagamitin sa pag-orient ng aming mga graduating students para sa paghahanda sa kanilang hinaharap. Nagpapasalamat kami sa DOLE, kay Director Suyao, at sa Davao Association of Guidance Counsellors sa lahat ng tulong na ibinigay nila sa amin. Sana’y magpatuloy ang aming magandang samahan para sa kapakanan ng mga estudyante sa aming paaralan,” he said.

With the organization of the association, career guidance counsellors in the region are now under one regional federation, Director Suyao is said.

Source: www.dole.gov.ph