DOLE expands program promoting gov’t service careers

To encourage more Filipinos to pursue a career in government service, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has expanded the coverage of its Government Internship Program (GIP).

Filipinos 31 years old and above can apply for the program, DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in Department Order 204-A issued recently.

To qualify, applicants must have no work or with intermittent work experience, laid-off or terminated due to closure of establishments or displaced due to natural or manmade disasters.

Bello said the program may also be extended to victims of armed conflict, rebel returnees, persons with disability (PWDs) and indigenous peoples.

Earlier, the DOLE-GIP was open only to Filipinos aged 18 to 30 years old.

The new qualifications are added to the earlier established requirements for GIP, wherein an applicant must have no work experience and at least a graduate of high school or senior high school, or its equivalent level under the Alternative Learning System, or of a technicalvocational course.

Under the program, GIP beneficiaries are tasked to assist DOLE and its partner agencies in duties that are not highly-technical in nature, such as encoding of registrants in the Public Employment Service Offices (PESO) employment information system and profiling of child laborers, PWDs and senior citizens in concerned barangays.

Among DOLE’s partner agencies in the program are the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the regional and national governments, PESO offices, public hospitals and public schools or educational institutions, government financial institutions, government-owned and controlled corporations and local government units.