EVERY year, students aged 15 years and above are given the opportunity to be exposed to actual office work through Department of Labor and Employment's (Dole) Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) program.
Given orientation last week by top provincial officials were some 1,900 college students belonging to the low-income bracket, accompanied by their parents to sign the employment contracts.
At Public Employment Service Offices (Peso) Mabalacat City, last April 27 to 28, some 696 students were given orientation, categorized as follows: LGU (local government unit)-300; DOLE-LGU-270; SPES Capitol-126 and SPES McDo-28. They were later farmed out to barangay offices and to private establishments. At the barangays, they were assigned to do Barangay Civil Registry System (BCRS) surveys in order to augment data gathered by the City Civil Registrar's Office, headed by Victor Terry Medina. The SPES participants are expected to work for 20 days.
This annual activity enhances the students' ability to cope with actual work exposure and develop their attitude to handle actual work volume.
It is also the effective way to train the students on the various ramifications of jobs prior to their graduation thus
make them ready and able to handle actual work load.
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The Peso Capitol oversees the work output of SPES participants coming from the city (Mabalacat) and the towns under the province's jurisdiction. It is headed by the amiable Luningning Vergara, the provincial Peso manager.
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Dole also has a significant participation in this year's staging of the SPES program. At the helm of Dole-Central Luzon is lawyer Ana Dione, CPA, ably assisted by Dole Pampanga Field Office head Arlene Tolentino and staff Arlene Castillo plus Alex Inza Cruz, chief Technical Services Division. It sees to it that the paper requirements are complete and the tax eligibility of the students' families are gauged and qualified.
