394 workers hired in Labor Day jobs fair

By Marlon A. Loterte

LEGAZPI CITY, May 6 (PIA) -- At least 394 were hired-on-the-spot among the 3,050 job applicants in the recently concluded Mega Jobs Fair held at SM City in Naga City and Embarcadro de Legazpi activity center here on May 1.

DOLE Bicol regional director Nathaniel Lacambra said the 394 who were hired right there and then at the jobs fair comprised the 15 percent of the qualified applicants who applied during the Labor Day simultaneous jobs fair.

“These will provide them (HOTS) decent jobs and families of the lucky applicants will surely have brighter prospect ahead of them,” Lacambra observed.

The jobs fair has drawn some 81 employers, including 60 local employers and 9 overseas employers in SM City in Naga City and 12 local employers Embarcadero de Legazpi here.

“To provide the almost 400 job seekers with employment in one-day is a significant accomplishment,” Lacambra added.

More than finding jobs, DOLE Bicol has ensured that applicants who were ‘not qualified’ would still get ‘some results’ out of the jobs fair.

In Naga City alone, some 91 job applicants were referred to (Technical Education and Skills Development or TESDA for skills training while 51 applicants have registered for livelihood assistance.

DOLE Bicol has noted that the increasing number of stakeholders in initiatives for employment generations indicated that almost all job seekers were given the chance to be interviewed or those who have applied from several employers to gain more chances of landing a job. (MAL-PIA5/Albay)

Albay cites 2013 school and barangay education achievers

LEGAZPI CITY, May 6 (PIA) -- The provincial government of Albay has recognized anew the best performing schools and barangay partners in education under its Gay Palcon and Barangay Kasangga sa Edukasyon o BAKAS Achievers 2013 Awards.

The local government's Provincial Education Department (PED) conferred the Gay Palcon Achievement Awards, named after the late educator and first PED head Dr. Ligaya Palcon, to the best performing schools based on the results of the 2012 National Achievement Test, while the BAKAS Awards program is both institutional and incentive mechanism at the barangay level.

The Department of Education Albay Division was adjudged as the best division.

A total of 41 schools were named Gay Palcon achievers and 28 barangays throughout the province as BAKAS achievers. Each awardee received a cash prize while the DepEd Albay Division also received a cash prize of P100,000.

The Albay education awards program embraces the shared development principle towards attaining the Albay Millennium Development Goal 2 (MDG 2) by year 2015, which is universal access to education.

It also mobilizes barangay involvement in education programs that will result in a significant contribution in advancing and sustaining the national and local agenda for quality education at all levels.

During the awarding ceremony, Governor Joey Sarte Salceda has cited anew the teachers.

He said when he was in elementary, he thought teachers were not human instead they came from heaven because “they saw not only what was inside my pocket but also what was inside my brain."

His parents, he said, are teachers.

He quoted Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who taught Alexander The Great, who said that “Teaching is the highest form of understanding.”

This axiom, he said, was supported by the modern-day corporate guru Peter F. Drucker when he said, “No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.”

He further acknowledged the teachers' contributions to the education of the youth, citing Darren Shan: “Students never appreciate their teachers while they are learning. It is only later when they know more of the world that they understand how indebted they are to those who instructed them. Good teachers expect no praise or love from the young. They wait for it, and in time, it comes.”

He said the province’s recognition and awards for achievers in education are small compared to the sacrifices, efforts and hard work the teachers have been doing.

Salceda stressed, “We owe from them the future of our children.” (MAL/NIMediavillo-PCOO-PBS/PIA5)