Workforce development in Bohol led to more jobs for local residents and a more competitive local tourism industry. Bohol now serves as DILG’s model on its workforce development assistance for LGUs to become more business-friendly and competitive.
6 October 2015—The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Government of Canada through their Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development (LGSP-LED) conducted ‘TraBAJO Forum: Workforce Development Initiatives and Strategic Partnerships Models’ in Panglao, Bohol held September 29 to 30, 2015.
LGSP-LED is a DILG-Canada cooperative program that aims to create a local business environment conducive to new investments and jobs. Through its workforce development component, partner-LGUs are provided assistance on localized workforce development planning, building partnerships with the private sector, setting up local skills databases, and training the local workforce for updated and competitive skills.
DILG is adopting LGSP-LED’s approach on workforce development assistance to LGUs through their recently launched project, TraBAJO, which aims to address the gap between supply and demand of workforce in local priority industries such as tourism, agri-business, and information technology-business processing outsourcing (IT-BPO), especially considering that the Philippines must increase the competitiveness of its local workforce for the ASEAN Economic Integration.
About 70 participated in the TraBAJO Forum composed mostly of Public Employment Service Officers from the Provinces of Palawan, Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and Cebu. They learned how to develop and enhance their workforce development plans for their local tourism industries to be more responsive to industry needs and sustainable and inclusive for local communities.
Bohol, through its work with LGSP-LED, has innovated and implemented initiatives in workforce development between 2011 and 2013 that led to more jobs for local residents and a more competitive local tourism industry. Bohol’s experiences was presented as models for other LGUs during the forum.
The Bohol Association of Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants (BAHRR) shared about collaborating with the LGUs of Panglao, Dauis, and Baclayon (PaDaYon) in designing and extending various skills enhancement trainings on tourism such as hotel management, food handling, guest relations, bookkeeping, housekeeping, bartending, among others, to up to 500 local workers and unemployed residents in PaDaYon.
The Bohol and Panglao employment offices, on the other hand, also shared about the Bohol Skills Registry System (BSRS), a pioneering online database of the local workforce for job seekers and employers to easily find each other.
Strong, strategic partnership with the local private sector was integral to Bohol’s successful workforce development initiatives and, therefore, one of the Forum’s main objectives is to facilitate the same valuable, strategic partnerships for its other partner-LGUs.
Aside from this DILG—through TraBAJO—will also be providing LGUs assistance on targeting job seekers, accessing opportunities available at national agencies, and overall execution of local workforce development plans upon its rollout outside of LGSP-LED project sites.
At the end of the two-day forum, 8 provinces enhanced and updated workforce development plans for their local tourism circuits. LGSP-LED partner-LGUs have so far created over 5000 new direct jobs in tourism and aim to create over 10,000 more come 2016.
TraBAJO is implemented in collaboration with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the private sector.#
For more information contact:
Bureau of Local Government Development
Department of the Interior and Local Government
25th Floor, DILG-NAPOLCOM Center, EDSA corner Quezon Avenue, Quezon City 1100
No. (632) 927-7852 | (632) 925-0356
www.dilg.gov.ph