DOLE gets more funds for youth employment programs

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is expanding the implementation of youth employment programs with additional funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello yesterday reported that the ADB has approved a $300-million loan for the implementation of various Philippine government programs.

The loan covers the first phase of youth school-to- work transition, a job creation program under the Duterte government’s Philippine Development Plan.

“The approval of the loan is a welcome development because it will help strengthen the Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs), which will help prepare our youth for productive employment,” Bello noted.

With the funding from ADB, the DOLE can expand the PESO and cover more areas, including Baguio City, and Ilagan and Santiago Cities, both in Isabela, Cagayan Valley.

The youth employment program will include a series of government policy actions to raise the youth employment rate, restructure PESOs,  support labor market activation programs and rolling  out new services to assist youth, strengthen training and apprenticeship programs.

The DOLE said the country continues to have a youth employment problem stemming from a slow school-to-work transition.

Based on an ADB study, only one out of five high school graduates in Metro Manila and Cebu City found a job within a year of leaving school.

In 2013, one in four young people was not in employment, education or training, a rate second only to Indonesia.

 The government cited inadequate and underfunded government employment services and weaknesses in post-high school training among the reasons Filipino youth are having difficulty finding jobs.

In 2015, the government institutionalized PESOs in all local government units and secured funding for them. 

The legislature also passed amendments to the Special Program for the Employment of Students Act that provides paid internships to poor students to keep them in college.  It also initiated the JobStart Philippines Program that provides skills training and internships to out-of-school youth to raise their chances of productive employment.