By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Citing the crucial role of Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs) in the delivery of employment programs and services to job seekers and workers in the region, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) regional office has recently a conducted a one-day hands-on training for the province’s PESO managers on the use of the Phil-JobNet (PJN) system.

The Phil-JobNet (PJN) system is the DOLE’s online job-matching and search facility, which also serves as the agency’s mechanism in addressing the problem of jobs and skills mismatch.

DOLE regional director Leopoldo de Jesus said that 22 PESO managers and personnel were trained on the system’s step-by-step operation, applicant registration, and full report generation.

“As the PESOs provide accessible channels of matched and suitable employment opportunities, it is proper and timely to educate and empower our ‘agents of change’ in the regions with the DOLE’s programs for the effective and comprehensive delivery of services to the informal workers, new entrants to the labor force, displaced, and returning migrant workers across all regions,” de Jesus said.

The PESOs, in collaboration with the local chief executives (LCEs), are the front line service providers who deliver the DOLE’s reform programs to the grassroots level towards inclusive economic growth in the regions,” he said.

DOLE Bataan Field office head Nely Punzalan facilitated the hands-on training, which familiarized the trainees with the PJN’s online job search and registration; skills search and posting in the system’s yellow pages; and report generation.

“The training aimed to capacitate the PESO employees on the Phil-JobNet access to bring the online employment facilitation system closer to both job seekers and employers and, hence, to boost the right job-matching process to avoid job and skills mismatch in Bataan,” Punzalan said.

The 24/7 access to real-time information on job vacancies through Trabaho i-text mo and other employment and livelihood information in the DOLE’s employment kiosks were also incorporated in the training to provide the PESO trainees with a comprehensive overview of all employment services.

Punzalan also discussed other DOLE-initiated projects, including the Balik Pinay! Balik Hanapbuhay!, a reintegration program for returning women overseas Filipino workers and the province’s Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES).