Villar vows to provide jobs to 2010 graduates

by Raul S. Beltran (Journal)

Link:http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/national/4933-villar-vows-to-provide-jobs-to-2010-graduates.html

NACIONALISTA Party standard-bearer Manuel Villar Jr. yesterday vowed to focus on how to provide jobs to the thousands of college and university students who will graduate this year, a problem that he said should be a concern for the next president.

Villar noted that nearly half a million graduates will seek to join the labor force and their failure to find jobs will contribute to the growing unemployment in the country.

The causes of unemployment problem are deep-seated. We need to tackle this problem at the roots in order to arrive at a long-term solution. For starters, I want to focus on how graduates of Class 2010 can land jobs so they would not join the ranks of unemployed,” said Villar.

Aside from the perennial problem of lack of jobs, Villar said new graduates also complain about unfair practices in hiring and recruitment procedures in both public and private sectors.

“We need to level the playing field for all graduates. There should be no discrimination in the hiring process. Everyone should be given equal opportunities regardless of schools or other factors. The way I see it, even honor graduates find it hard to get jobs,” he said.

At the Senate, Villar has filed a measure urging government offices to help honor graduates of state universities and colleges (SUCs) to get jobs by prioritizing them in the hiring process.

He explained that Senate Bill 552 or the proposed Public Honor Graduates Priority Act seeks to grant priority to honor graduates of SUCs in the recruitment of civil service employees.

The former Senate president also cautioned companies and organizations against discriminating against graduates of other schools by indicating in their hiring criteria the names of the institutions they prefer.

Meanwhile, the NP presidential candidate batted for entrepreneurship as a long-term solution to the country’s unemployment problems to remove the old archetype of Philippine schools preparing their students to be plain employees.

“We also need to create a new generation of entrepreneurs. We need more job providers to counter the increasing number of job-seekers.”