Jobs ‘R’ Us
April 17, 2002 | 12:00am
If there is anything that should unite every single Filipino today, it is the urgent need for us to rally around the President’s goal to create jobs – even beyond the one million mark she has targeted. This critical program, under Presidential Advisor Cito Lorenzo, is not someone else’s responsibility but our own because it is a unique opportunity that could make or break us. We have so much going for the Philippines. Not focusing on job creation when human resource is our greatest asset would be a tragedy.
In fact, the job creation program requires a comprehensive business plan for each of the areas of competence we, as Philippines Inc., can excel and be competitive in. Cito Lorenzo says, "We must look at the market demands for a specific skill, inventory all the desirable attributes and quality standards expected, benchmark our ability to be better then the best, and analyze the supply chain to assess and ensure our overall cost and quality competitiveness."
All stakeholders for a specific industry must then rally together to ensure our delivery. In business: to market, to provide market data to all stakeholders, to invest in skills development, to sell and to create wealth for all. In labor: to be productive and to excel. In academe: to respond with a relevant curriculum for the required skills and added value knowledge that would set us apart. In government: to provide a dynamic and efficient environment, free of bureaucracy. In labor unions and organizations: to encourage best labor practices and work ethics for both business and labor. In the legal profession and judiciary: to help the nation transcend a litigious environment to one where everyone works together for our survival. In trade associations: to aggressively promote and measure success against established benchmarks so we can see how well we are doing.
Benchmarking ensures integrity in the system. We need, for instance, to benchmark our marketing efforts against our market share, students against those who pass, number of graduates against job placements, and our productivity against those of the best foreign competitor. When we use benchmarks against clear goals, each stakeholder becomes accountable for his performance.
The seafaring industry, for one, has formed itself into a cluster of stakeholders to promote Filipino seaman as the "Best Seafarer in the World and the Seafarer of Choice." Today, 200,000 Filipino seafarers are the single largest nationality serving on 20 percent of the world’s fleet. However, competition from China, other Asian countries, and Eastern Europe are aggressively promoting their seafarers and making inroads with competitive salaries and trouble-free employment contracts. Aside from gathering more accurate market data and promoting the industry, the Philippine Seafarers Promotion Council, is organizing the cluster made up of manning agencies, labor unions, academe and training centers, government, maritime clinics, seafarers’ welfare organizations, and other stakeholders to jointly assess and overcome our weaknesses and enhance what makes us unique.
One of the challenges is to improve the cost of doing business with one-stop shops. Another is to develop our data gathering capability with an e-documentation system that can link all government agencies and allow us to react quickly to market demands.
If, for example, we currently supply 1,000 cooks to cruise ships and a growth of 10 percent is expected, five-star hotels should know that at least 100 cooks would leave their system. Add this to the growth of demands for cooks hired abroad, locally in the hospitality trade, as well as in our homes. Once schools are provided very specific data, they would invest in culinary programs to fill the needs of the job market, know what skills are needed, and who are hiring. Schools would also be able to encourage students to take specialized courses like foreign languages. While the Chinese struggle to learn English, Filipino cooking graduates who speak Italian would have a hard-to-beat advantage in the Italian market. If schools aim to place at least 90 percent of their graduates in jobs, we could then establish educational loan programs to allow more students access to education, and to make the investment by schools viable.
This process of thinking can be applied to any job position or profession. Take our talented Filipino musicians. A Malaysian friend who loves listening to Filipino bands in Kuala Lumpur assumed that we have a lot of music schools. The question made me realize that many Filipino musicians learn music by ear. This awesome talent merits a national program that involves promoting Filipino musicians and music, identifying talented young children through schools and adult talents through barangays, enjoining professionals all other the country to train and teach in after school or after work programs, allocating public funds to support initiatives being made by cultural institutions or for subsidies for music videos on MTV, and expanding the job market locally. Restaurants including fast food and hotels could be enjoined to hire musicians under this program even at a minimal wage with a tipping possibility. The training could include language lessons, how to package a band, simple business and accounting, costing of services, work ethics, any other skill that would help a musician become world class so he could work anywhere in the world.
Cito emphasizes that no one can do this alone. He is urging industry groups to organize themselves to assess, to package, promote and sell. He sees his job as an "investment banker" enabler, willing to assist any organization link to government, and to markets. The biggest hurdle is making the decision to put our egos aside – industry groups and the myriad of associations in nursing, caregivers, IT, domestic helpers, masseuse, shoe shine workers, embroiderers, etc...etc...working with one another – not as business against labor but as one unique Philippines Inc. providing service to the world. Once this veil is lifted, we would be surprised at how much there is out there longing for the magic of Filipino service.
Please contact the Job Creation Office, Room 490, Mabini Hall, Malacañang at 736-10-42. Also this office is organizing job fairs, and has a website: www.phil-jobnet.dole.gov.ph for job matching.
Thank you for your comments at dorisho@attglobal.net.
In fact, the job creation program requires a comprehensive business plan for each of the areas of competence we, as Philippines Inc., can excel and be competitive in. Cito Lorenzo says, "We must look at the market demands for a specific skill, inventory all the desirable attributes and quality standards expected, benchmark our ability to be better then the best, and analyze the supply chain to assess and ensure our overall cost and quality competitiveness."
All stakeholders for a specific industry must then rally together to ensure our delivery. In business: to market, to provide market data to all stakeholders, to invest in skills development, to sell and to create wealth for all. In labor: to be productive and to excel. In academe: to respond with a relevant curriculum for the required skills and added value knowledge that would set us apart. In government: to provide a dynamic and efficient environment, free of bureaucracy. In labor unions and organizations: to encourage best labor practices and work ethics for both business and labor. In the legal profession and judiciary: to help the nation transcend a litigious environment to one where everyone works together for our survival. In trade associations: to aggressively promote and measure success against established benchmarks so we can see how well we are doing.
Benchmarking ensures integrity in the system. We need, for instance, to benchmark our marketing efforts against our market share, students against those who pass, number of graduates against job placements, and our productivity against those of the best foreign competitor. When we use benchmarks against clear goals, each stakeholder becomes accountable for his performance.
The seafaring industry, for one, has formed itself into a cluster of stakeholders to promote Filipino seaman as the "Best Seafarer in the World and the Seafarer of Choice." Today, 200,000 Filipino seafarers are the single largest nationality serving on 20 percent of the world’s fleet. However, competition from China, other Asian countries, and Eastern Europe are aggressively promoting their seafarers and making inroads with competitive salaries and trouble-free employment contracts. Aside from gathering more accurate market data and promoting the industry, the Philippine Seafarers Promotion Council, is organizing the cluster made up of manning agencies, labor unions, academe and training centers, government, maritime clinics, seafarers’ welfare organizations, and other stakeholders to jointly assess and overcome our weaknesses and enhance what makes us unique.
One of the challenges is to improve the cost of doing business with one-stop shops. Another is to develop our data gathering capability with an e-documentation system that can link all government agencies and allow us to react quickly to market demands.
If, for example, we currently supply 1,000 cooks to cruise ships and a growth of 10 percent is expected, five-star hotels should know that at least 100 cooks would leave their system. Add this to the growth of demands for cooks hired abroad, locally in the hospitality trade, as well as in our homes. Once schools are provided very specific data, they would invest in culinary programs to fill the needs of the job market, know what skills are needed, and who are hiring. Schools would also be able to encourage students to take specialized courses like foreign languages. While the Chinese struggle to learn English, Filipino cooking graduates who speak Italian would have a hard-to-beat advantage in the Italian market. If schools aim to place at least 90 percent of their graduates in jobs, we could then establish educational loan programs to allow more students access to education, and to make the investment by schools viable.
This process of thinking can be applied to any job position or profession. Take our talented Filipino musicians. A Malaysian friend who loves listening to Filipino bands in Kuala Lumpur assumed that we have a lot of music schools. The question made me realize that many Filipino musicians learn music by ear. This awesome talent merits a national program that involves promoting Filipino musicians and music, identifying talented young children through schools and adult talents through barangays, enjoining professionals all other the country to train and teach in after school or after work programs, allocating public funds to support initiatives being made by cultural institutions or for subsidies for music videos on MTV, and expanding the job market locally. Restaurants including fast food and hotels could be enjoined to hire musicians under this program even at a minimal wage with a tipping possibility. The training could include language lessons, how to package a band, simple business and accounting, costing of services, work ethics, any other skill that would help a musician become world class so he could work anywhere in the world.
Cito emphasizes that no one can do this alone. He is urging industry groups to organize themselves to assess, to package, promote and sell. He sees his job as an "investment banker" enabler, willing to assist any organization link to government, and to markets. The biggest hurdle is making the decision to put our egos aside – industry groups and the myriad of associations in nursing, caregivers, IT, domestic helpers, masseuse, shoe shine workers, embroiderers, etc...etc...working with one another – not as business against labor but as one unique Philippines Inc. providing service to the world. Once this veil is lifted, we would be surprised at how much there is out there longing for the magic of Filipino service.
Please contact the Job Creation Office, Room 490, Mabini Hall, Malacañang at 736-10-42. Also this office is organizing job fairs, and has a website: www.phil-jobnet.dole.gov.ph for job matching.
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
