Where shall the graduates go for jobs?

The job search is on. The graduation ceremonies are over. The parties are finished and the celebrations have all been done. The diplomas are on the walls, the transcripts of records are still to be gotten from the university's registrar's office, but the curriculum vitae and the elegant photos are in place. The new graduates have searched all print, broadcast, and web ads, surfed the internet for all places where work may be found, and have prepared all sorts of  plans where to go. They must have even contacted the PESOs (Public Employment Services Offices) of the LGU's (Local Government Units) and phoned the DOLE regional office for the next schedules of job fairs.

The pressures are on the new college graduates to search for jobs and livelihood, and the job markets hold no promise for success. In the face of scarce availability of vacant posts, and very stiff competition, job applicants are inclined to set aside their high standards in choosing where to work. They are inclined to go on a series of desperate job hunting in the jungles of the corporate world, going into the cities and metropolitan centers and leaving the provinces in search of work. Many of them, if unguided and without proper counsel, may yet fall into the hands of traffickers and illegal recruiters, and may be subjected to all forms of deceits, frauds, and machinations.

Where shall our college graduates go? Should we leave them alone to become helpless preys to the many predators lurking around? Should colleges and universities, which granted them diplomas, just abandon them now, in their hours of need? Should local governments ignore this great opportunity to serve their constituents ? Should politicians just look the other way and refuse to provide assistance? Should the DOLE officials and personnel just wait in their well-appointed offices until they receive complaints of illegal recruitment and trafficking? Should government fold its hands while hundreds of thousands of our graduates are searching for jobs?

We have a package of suggestions to all the concerned institutions and agencies. We propose that starting the first of April until the opening of classes, the universities' and colleges' student affairs' offices and alumni centers should each open an EMPLOYMENT SEARCH ASSISTANCE CENTER (ESAC) to be manned by a composite team of the academe's responsible official and a group of alumni volunteers and well-intentioned people from fraternities and sororities and from civic organizations. This Center should provide career and work guidance to all job hunters who graduated from that institution.

We also suggest that PESOs in all provinces, cities, and municipalities, as well as DOLE regional, provincial, district, and other satellite offices should do the same. All these centers should be supervised and advised by the DOLE's Bureau of Local Employment. The job applicants should undergo a career testing procedure to determine where they are most suited and a job matching process must be put in place. The government's assistance to job-seekers must be purposive, coherent and integrated. Government should not leave our young graduates alone. This is the time that government should make its concern felt by the hundreds of thousands of job applicants.

Where shall all the job hunters go? Let the academe, the LGU's, the DOLE, the civil society and even the Church come together for the common purpose of providing them help. Let the politicians put their resources where their promises lie. Let the police and the NBI watch out for illegal recruiters and traffickers. It takes the whole nation to make our graduates' search for jobs a success. Jobs and employment are too vital for our country's survival to be left alone to the new graduates. Let us all join and help.