Philippines urges students to take technology-related courses

Sep 19, 2011, 9:33 GMT

Manila - Filipino students were urged Monday to take courses related to information technology in order to land jobs amid high unemployment in the country.

Department of Labour and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said there are a lot of job opportunities in the cyber services sector that pay as much as 40,000 pesos (930 dollars) a month.

'High-demand and high-paying jobs in the cyber services industries include web developers, network engineers, computer programmers, program analysts, systems-analysts, technical support representatives, and software engineers, among other,' she said.

Baldoz added that students eyeing jobs in the cyber services sector could also take up short and specialized courses on online web marketing, online copywriting, legal transcription, web development solution and technical drafting.

'It takes only three to six months of apprenticeship/learnership to obtain knowledge and skills about these jobs,' she said. 'But I advise jobseekers who are armed with these courses to train, pick up very good communication skills, and a serious work ethic to be able to land a job.'

According to the government's quarterly labour survey, the jobless rate was 7.1 per cent in July, up from 7 per cent in the same month in 2010. In April, the unemployment rate was 7.2 per cent.

The survey also found that the underemployment rate - or the number of Filipinos who wanted to find additional hours of work or new jobs with longer working hours - increased to 19.1 per cent from 17.1 per cent in the same period last year.

Baldoz blamed the high rates on a mismatch in the courses taken by most of the country's students to the demand of the labour market.

The labour department also said prospects are also good for courses related to agribusiness, health, tourism, mining, construction, banking and finance.