DOLE: 10,628 students to benefit from summer job program

A total of 10,628 students from Metro Manila will benefit from this year's summer Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), the Labor Department said Friday. Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Metro Manila regional director Raymundo Agravante said the metropolis' 17 local government units allotted these slots to poor but deserving students. "The 10,628 SPES beneficiaries in Metro Manila will be engaged, on the average, for 20 to 52 days of various summer work appropriate to their skills beginning April until May in private sector companies and government agencies, which have pledged to employ the students under the program," the Labor Department said in a news release. Government agencies that will sponsor the working students are the Departments of Education, Science and Technology, and Labor and Employment. The students are to work as tax mappers, office workers, barangay survey personnel, encoders, and school assistants. On the other hand, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Sevanti Foods Inc., Shell South Luzon Tollway, Northpark Noodles, The Body Shop, and M&H Food Corporation will hire students as food service crew, customer touch points, office workers, gasoline attendants, cashiers, sales ladies, promotion merchandisers, and other positions. Bureau of Local Employment Director Maria Criselda Sy said 84,786 poor but deserving students nationwide benefited from the SPES in 2010. Of last year's beneficiaries, most were provided with "bridging employment assistance" during their summer breaks. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said more than 85,000 poor students are expected to benefit from SPES this year. "It teaches students the value of skills towards productive work," she said. She encouraged more private sector companies, as well as government agencies, to sponsor students under SPES program and share in the effort to provide "well-deserving, but unfortunately poor in-school youth who hail from low income families the chance to make education, as well as skills training, their own "great equalizer" in life. Any productive jobs suited to talented and skilled youth under conditions specified by law is considered, like assisting office staff, computer data encoding, tree planting, mall operation, an fast-food services, among other work," she said. She emphasized that under the SPES law, both the government and participating private sector share in ensuring the salary of a student-beneficiary, which should not be lower than the minimum wage set by law. At least 60 percent of the student's salary or wage shall be paid by the employer in cash, while the remaining 40 percent of the applicable minimum wage law or hiring rate shall be paid by DOLE. The SPES started under the late President Corazon Aquino 19 years ago after the Congress enacted Republic Act 7323 on March 30, 1992. Students may apply for employment under the SPES provided they meet the following qualifications:

* He or she must be between 18 and 25 years old; * The combined net income after tax of his or her parents, including his or her income if any, does not exceed the latest annual poverty threshold level for a family of six as determined and provided by the National Economic and Development Authority; and * He or she must at least have gotten an average passing grade during the last school term attended.