The private sector is leading a new jobs campaign in partnership with various government agencies and major online employment platform on hopes of creating over a million new and quality jobs this year,
The “Trabaho Para sa Bayan: J.O.B.S. (Job Opportunities Building Skills) Commitment Ceremony” of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC), SM Foundation, JobStreet, Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), and Philippine Exporters Confederation (PHILEXPORT) was held Thursday, May 9, at the Music Hall of the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
Deborah P. Sy, SM Foundation, Inc. Executive Director and Trustee and Dannah Majarocon, Jobstreet by SEEK Managing Director and signed the pact, witnessed by Teresita Sy-Coson, SM Investments Corporation Vice-Chair Person and PSAC Jobs Member and Lead for J.O.B.S.; Jose Ma. “Joey” A. Concepcion III, PPSAC Lead for Jobs and Go Negosyo Founder; Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary; Secretary Frederick Go, Special Assistant to the President for Investments and Economic Affairs (SAPIEA); PCCI Chairman George Barcelon; and PhilExport President Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr.
“With today’s gathering of giants of industries, big associations, and government leaders, we hope to contribute to providing employment opportunities to more of our fellow Filipinos,” Sy said at the launch.
She said the milestone event is “where the private sector commits to support government efforts for job matching and upskilling activities for our workforce.”
“SM is in the pilot stages of our upskilling initiative. We are currently focusing on digital upskilling, with the aim of expanding this partnership later on to other companies. Our goal is to train and upskill the Filipino workforce to enhance their employability in their chosen field,” Sy said.
The collaboration seeks to generate quality jobs for Filipinos and help address the job skills mismatch. It strives to contribute to nation-building through activities including a series of on-ground job fairs at SM Malls nationwide and daily online job fairs via Jobstreet by SEEK’s online platform.
For his part, Concepcion said that micro, small and medium enterprises also create lots of jobs, but cited that big businesses have the “moral obligation” to provide jobs to the unemployed and help uplift the small entrepreneurs. .
Ferdinand “Perry” Ferrer, PCCI vice-president, told the press at the sidelines of the launch that Project JOBS hopes to generate over a million jobs this year. He, however, explained that the jobs campaign is envisioned to be sustainable for the current and upcoming administrations.
He said that the private sector-led initiative through PSAC with strong support from different government agencies is aimed to “really help our unemployed and underemployed Filipinos and to generate quality jobs.”
Growth drivers in the jobs campaign would be manufacturing, construction, IT-BPM and tourism, among others.
Ferrer said that the manufacturing sector alone is expected to contribute between 150,000 to 180,000 new jobs to the one million target.
He stressed the need to upskill and reskill workers in order to provide quality jobs and better earnings. Thus, he said, the TESDA (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority) is also part of the project.
“We will focus on quality jobs, what are the future skilled jobs. So, we need to upskill and reskill because at the end of the day that will result in quality jobs and higher earnings,” said Ferrer.
Different associations such as the IT-Business Process Association of the Philippines, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries Foundation Inc., Contact Centers Association of the Philippines, Philippine Hotel Owners Association, construction, finance and banking groups are participating in the project.
Steven Tan, president of SM Supermalls, said that SM conducted a jobs fair last Labor Day, May 1, where 22 SM malls participated.
Tan also said that SM malls have been employing thousands of jobs. One big SM mall, like the Mall of Asia, is estimated to employ 100,000 including its tenants.
Complementing the launch of the Project JOBS is a Jobs Fair at the MOA were 32 companies participated, 25 of which are from the SM Group. There were also 2,498 job vacancies offered at the fair.
Succeeding job fairs will be rolled out nationwide—SM City San Jose Del Monte on May 16, SM City San Pedro Laguna on May 23, and SM City General Santos on May 30.
SM hosted more than 60 job fairs nationwide, gathering around 2,000 employers, and engaging more than 35,000 applicants since January.
Hirers in need of candidates can also participate in the hybrid career fairs by reaching out to the Private Sector Advisory Council, Jobstreet by SEEK, or SM Supermalls.