LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The Benguet Public Employment Service Office (PESO-Benguet) prepared the necessary pre-deployment orientations among 166 qualified SPES applicants for 2022.
It can be remembered that the PESO-Benguet opened the applications on January 17 to February 11, 2022. To date, the capitol’s employment office prepares the necessary deployment arrangements in the different offices of the provincial government including farm stations.
The Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) is an youth-employment-bridging program which aims to provide temporary employment to indigent and deserving students.
The students underwent a rigid process from application, interview, and examination. The requirements of the program indicated to have been part of the indigent family, must be 15-30 years old, and have a passing weighted average for a student. After the examination, the committee chose all the qualified applicants by combining their scores from the result of the examination and their interviews.
SPES is being implemented by the PESO-Benguet in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to augment the family’s income ensuring youth beneficiaries to pursue their education.
“This program is very helpful to students, mainly to the indigent but deserving students, to have an extra financial source that they can use to pursue their education,” said Julie Tabcao, PESO manager,
Tabcao, as the main head for the program, understood the need of the students especially during this time of pandemic that economic opportunities are limited. “One isolated case of student’s motivation to be a SPES beneficiary include being a self-supporting student, who did not get support from their parents due to familial concerns.”
Tabcao thought that these kinds of students who have the perseverance to make ways for their dreams are worth for the help. “Hindi man maibibigay lahat ng kanilang pangangailangan sa kanilang pag-aaral, at least makakatulong ito sa kanila (Even though the salary that they will be getting will not suffice their needs, at least it will help them in some ways),” she added
“Nag-aplayak ta dakkel tulong na iti panageskwelak karkaro ta self-supporting student ak, maysaak nga 3rd year student iti criminology idiay KCP, ket no mapagasatanak nga makapasa dakkel tulong na tapnu makabayadak tuition ko (I applied in SPES to support my studies as I am a self-supporting student. I am a 3rd year student taking criminology in KCP. If I will be chosen, it is a big help to augment my studies),” explained Jayvee Sinon, one of the qualified applicants.
In terms of reference, 280 student applicants took the examination on March 5, 2022, held at Ben Palispis Hall, Benguet Capitol. Of the 280 applicants, 166 youth were chosen for the program. The number of qualified applicants depend on the program’s budget.
The SPES budget is estimated to have PhP 1.5 million funded by DOLE and provincial government. Of the total budget, 60 percent of the budget will be coming from the province, and 40 percent will come from DOLE.
On individual SPES daily rate, the beneficiaries will earn P 519.64 per day.
The initial deployment is scheduled from May 16 to June 27, 2022 for the first batch and from July 18 to August 26, 2022, will be for the second batch.
The signing of the contract will be on April 2, 2022 at the Provincial Capitol.
By James Villena
