Teaching people how to fish in Caloocan

Fishing in Caloocan?

Some 300 men and women residents of Caloocan North yesterday finished a three-month technical education program sponsored by the city government in a bid to give more employment for the idle and unemployed and generate more economic opportunities for them in the city, Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri announced yesterday.

"Giving the less fortunate of our people fish to ease their hunger for the moment simply is not enough. This (program) is teaching them how to fish, an opportunity we have opened for them that could lead to better lives for our people in the future. This is giving them hope in these difficult times," Echiverri said.

The mayor commended the new graduates even as he lauded the continuing manpower program of the city under the Department of Urban, Social and Industrial Relations Services (DUSIRS).

The program, Echiverri said, is being conducted in cooperation with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which provided instructors and the expertise for the various tech-vocational courses offered.

Under the program, the city provided all applicants greater chances of getting hired by employers and setting up their own businesses later as budding entrepreneurs.

The mayor urged the new graduates and the crowd present at the covered court in Barangay 174 to seize every opportunity they can find to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired not only for themselves and their immediate families, but most especially to service to others.

DUSIRS records showed there were 78 graduates in data encoding, 27 in automotive maintenance and repair, 53 in basic electricity, 23 in practical electricity, 38 in cosmetology, 22 in sewing and 21 in welding.

The DUSIRS and TESDA are accepting students every three months, Echiverri said.

Interested applicants, he said, may inquire now at the DUSIRS office at City Hall. – Jerry Botial