Databank to help RP create 10 million jobs

The creation of tourism jobs databank is expected to help the Philippine government's bid to provide six million to 10 million jobs in the next four years.

DOT led by secretary Joseph "Ace" Durano, through the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC) has launched the setting up of a high-tech hiring system and info-technology infrastructure, and the opening salvo will be done through a Tourism Jobs Fair in Cebu that will be held on April 4 and 5 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.

In Cebu, over 100 tourism related businesses will be joining the Tourism Jobs Fair, a two-day event that will officially open the online registration of jobs databank platform.

"This will be a paperless job's fair that will be participated by different industries in the tourism sector, like hotels, spa, restaurants, malls, and the like," said DOT-7 regional director Patria Aurora Roa.

Intended exclusively for the travel and tourism industry, the fair constitutes the initial phase of the DOT's "TourismJOBs [Jobs, Opportunity, Business]" program, which is designed to address the dearth of qualified talents to fill up job openings in tourism, the need for improvement of the current B.S. Tourism curriculum to meet the actual needs of tourism enterprises, and the absence of continuing skills training to upgrade the competence of the labor sector.

"The event will go beyond the usual concept of jobs fairs by serving as the DOT's one-stop venue for employers, academe and the labor sector to assess each other's needs and create an employment match.

Fresh graduates, as well as unemployed, job seekers are free to register their resume and other personal and skills information to the databank online, all-year-round. The jobs databank website is www.tourismjobs.ph

"This make an easy access for employers to search for potential workers, at the same time provide venue for job seekers to have their personal information be made available in the databank," Roa said.

During online or onsite registration, a unique identification number (UIN) will be issued to every applicant. The UIN will appear on the webpage upon the applicant's completion of the registration procedure.

The UIN will enable the applicant to access the list of job vacancies in the databank, and facilitate his entry to the fair by presenting its generated copy to the secretariat's desk for "Pre-Registered Applicants", or directly to the employers at the job's fair.

"This is the first in the DOT existence that it has come up with a jobs data bank to help the tourism businesses access employable pool," Roa said.

Similar event is also scheduled in Metro Manila and Davao, to excite job applicants to register in the online databank.

Some of the over 100 employers to participate in the onsite Tourism job's fair in Cebu include; Travel Vision Inc., Aboitiz and Company, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Cebu Holdings Inc., Speechcom, Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort, L.A. Ducut and Company, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, Smart Communications Inc.