CABANATUAN CITY – For the first time, the National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) took slots for the government’s employment program to help poor but deserving students pursue their studies through summer jobs.
Engr. Jose Ariel Domingo, manager of the NIA-UPRIIS division III, said that at least 12 students from farming families have started on Tuesday their work under the “Adhering to Students Needs Job Beating Summer Program (ASN-JBS)” which served as dove-tail of the Department of Labor and Employment’s Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES).
NIA entered into an agreement with DOLE during the agency’s kick off ceremonies for SPES that was led by Central Luzon Dir. Raymundo Agravante at the Benigno S. Aquino, Sr. Farmers Training Center here.
The students from farming families are part of the 1,362 youths enrolled on the program from Nueva Ecija.
DOLE allocated P3.7 million, as its counterpart on students’ salaries, for Nueva Ecija, according to Engr. Pedro Fernando, head of DOLE-Nueva Ecija.
Agravante said some 8,000 students stand to benefit from SPES, with P27.9 million budget, in Region 3.
“Throughout the years, the Special Program for the Employment of Students or simply “SPES” in Region 3 has benefited countless youth beneficiaries from the informal sector who wish to pursue and finish their studies and eventually land sustainable jobs” Agravante said.
Ronel Escalante, a son of an electrician, who is a freshman taking up a course on information technology at Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) expressed his enthusiasm in taking up his first summer job.
Present during the MOA signing are Agravante; Engr. Pedro S. Fernando, head of the DOLE Nueva Ecija Field Office; Nely P. Punzalan, head of the DOLE R-3 Technical Support and Services for employment and Welfare; Engr. Edith Ragodon, NIA; and other key officials from NIA-UPRIIS.
“To our SPES babies as the DOLE fondly calls its beneficiaries who’ve finished their studies through the help of the program, may this be a way of enjoying a different summer as you gain work experience, develop work ethics, and of course have the reward of earning which you can use when you go back to school” Agravante added.
