LTIPC to go on selling mission to Manila based firms

By Provincial Media Relations Center
February 15, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  The Leyte Tourism and Investment Promotion Center (LTIPC) is set to go on a selling mission to various companies in Manila geared for more investment opportunities and employment for the province of Leyte.

Targeted industrial firms to be visited are major companies in Metro Manila that represent areas of hospitals, hotels, IT, pharmaceuticals, agri-aqua business and food services.

Set this week from February 16-18, the selling mission is set to promote Leyte as an investment destination and to boost the province of Leyte's image in investment, increase inflows and encourage expansion of investments. This as investment generation is seen to result to employment opportunities.

Also, as earlier disclosed by Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, one of the major concerns of the provincial government is the employment of graduates from the different colleges and universities in the province.

At present, majority of these graduates end up unemployed or are forced to land in odd jobs not related to their academic courses.  The root cause of this problem is pointed at the scarcity of employment opportunities in the province and the mismatch of courses offered by local schools and the current needs of present industries.

Data from the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (Ched) showed that there are three million students who are graduating this year, some 500,000 are college graduates and barely half of the total graduates get jobs immediately after graduation.

The apparent reason observed, is that college graduates’ skills do not match with the available job vacancies. The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) earlier expressed concern that many of the graduates do not satisfy what the industry needs.

The province through the LTIPC is working to establish a tie-up between Leyte schools and industries, particularly on how modern technology requirements of industries can be matched with school curriculum and to collaborate with the schools of Leyte in upgrading the competency and competitiveness of their grading towards the current skills requirements and related career preparation of the leading industries.