The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) is boosting its training program to help meet demands for skilled and highly English-proficient workers of various companies here with its current chairman of the board seeking ways to stress the need for appropriate training modules to make applicants more employable.
At present, there are more than 9,000 job openings in Clark but only few applicants are hired because of lack or insufficient knowledge and skill, particularly in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry that require English proficiency of applicants.
During the recent joint press conference of Pampanga Press Club (PPC) and the Capampangan in Media, Inc. (CAMI) at the Bale Balita here, CDC Chairman Jose “Ping” De Jesus said there is a need to help locators to fill their manpower needs with appropriate job skill and knowledge.
De Jesus said that CDC, in cooperation with the locators who have vacancies, saw the need to conduct a ‘boot camp’ to address particular employers’ needs in their respective industries.
The former secretary of Department of Transportation said that during the recent talks with executives of locator-firms, a training program for specific needs is being developed.
“We want to design a crash program to at least, qualify them (applicants),” he explained.
The programs have several objectives: Among them is to institute so-called “bridge training” or a “bootcamp” for teachers and applicant-students proficiency. This will be a tripartite project between the academe, BPO companies and CDC on the following courses: English proficiency for call center or BPO firms; and, instructional comprehension for applicant that will be hired by manufacturing firms.
He added that ‘’soft skills development” will also be incorporated in the course module so as to impress upon applicants proper work ethics, attitude and values such as punctuality, self-reliance, cultural diversity, team work, among others.
The training module will also include background on labor standards for workers to know basic rights and obligations of employers and workers in the workplace.
CDC’s training program is also geared towards a need to distinguish or “brand” employees of Freeport Zone to make them reliable, efficient and trustworthy.
Aside from the providing training for would-be employees in Clark, CDC also encourages locators to outsource generic trainings through scholarship grants in acceptable terms to institutions in areas which are not covered by copyright or trade secrets to immediately match the needs of the locators.
CDC is also open in the engagement in a joint curriculum or course design development in industry-relevant core courses (ie. Business Analytics and Reporting, Productivity and Quality Control System/Tools) for the manufacturing firms.
The CDC should also have a joint industry and academe seminars especially in trainings for teachers in teaching the needs of the industry so as to avoid mismatching of the educational qualifications of the applicants on the needs of the firms, de Jesus said.