Out-of-school youth encouraged to avail of summer jobs under SPES

To help out-of-school youth continue their education, a Senator on Monday urged them to take advantage of the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) which provides them with short-term job opportunities.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who sponsored the new SPES law that was enacted in August last year, said the new law mandates that out-of-school youth and those enrolled in the tertiary, vocational or technical education may be employed at any time of the year.

Meanwhile, high school students shall be employed only during summer and/or Christmas vacations.

“We expanded the law’s coverage and lengthened its duration so that more youth can benefit, especially those who are out-of-school because of poverty. We encourage them to make their summer break productive and help their families save up for their education,” Angara said.

Republic Act 10917 aims to strengthen the government’s employment program for students to include not only poor but deserving students, but also out-of-school youth, dependents of displaced workers, and would-be displaced workers due to business closures or work stoppages, or natural calamities, who intend to enroll in any secondary, tertiary or technical-vocational institutions.

The SPES was instituted in 1992 under RA 7323, and was amended by RA 9547 in 2009. It aims to help poor but deserving students in pursuing their education by encouraging establishments and government agencies to employ them during summer and Christmas vacations.

Angara, vice chairman of the Senate labor committee, said RA 10917 further raised the age limit of the program’s beneficiaries from 15 to 25 years old to 15 to 30 years old, and extended the SPES employment period from 52 days to 78 days or three months.

To qualify, the combined net income of the beneficiary’s parents, including his/her own income, if any, should not exceed the latest annual regional poverty threshold level for a family of six.

Sixty percent of the salary of the beneficiaries will be paid by the employer, while the remaining 40 percent will be shouldered by the government, both to be paid in cash.

Such salary will be used for the students’ tuition fees and other education-related expenses including their daily allowance for food and transportation in going to school.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said that it has allocated around PHP798 million for the employment of 100,000 to 120,000 students and out-of-school youth this summer break.

Beneficiaries can be hired as food service crews, customer touch points, office clerks, gasoline attendants, cashiers, sales ladies, promodizers, as well as in clerical, encoding, messengerial, computer and programming jobs. (PNA)

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