Manila signs agreement for JobStart Philippines 

Manila Mayor Francisco 'Isko Moreno' Domagoso signed on Tuesday, February 23 a Memorandum of Agreement with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the flagship program JobStart Philippines.

JobStart Philippines was piloted in 2016 which aims to shorten the youth's school-to-work transition by means of enhancing their skills and knowledge.

Under the MOA, the Public Employment Service Office (PESO)-Manila will provide 100 beneficiary slots for selected young adults with Life and Skills Training or LST. The technical training will last for three (3) months, with two (2) to three (3) months of work experience or internship.

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The MOA also abides to the Mayor's directive to PESO-Manila Director Fernan Bermejo to establish more jobs for the Manileños. According to Domagoso, the City is trying to create more jobs for the Manileños to ease the impact of COVID-19 in the employment sector in Manila.

"The city is really trying to create jobs, whether it is permanent or temporary," Domagoso said.

The Mayor also added that joblessness will only cause more problems in the City. Because of this, the Mayor said that the local government is trying to balance both the lives and livelihood of the Manileños.

"Joblessness is equals to hunger and hunger results to chaos kaya binabalense namin ang buhay at kabuhayan," he added.

Eligible beneficiaries of the program must possess the following criteria:

• Filipino citizen either natural, naturalized or dual citizen
• 18-24 years old, including 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the time the technical training stage
• at least high school-level
• Not be in education,, in employment, or in training (NEET) at the time of registration; and
• No work experience or have less than one year of accumulated work experience which include part-time and full-time work

Also, DOLE will provide the PESO-Manila core staff with capacity building on the use of the PESO Employment Information System (PEIS) and LST, and to build new capacities of PESOs in adopting the new JobStart model on employment facilitation services.

JobStart Philippines also aims to establish linkages with the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to have JobStart Trainees.