Computer-literate youth tapped in "Kabataan ITO" gov't project

CEBU, Philippines - Unemployed youth who are literate in Information Technology are tapped in a government-initiated earning and learning project in the hope of improving IT literacy among the disadvantaged members of the youth sector through free mentoring sessions and supervised Internet access to online government programs and services.

In partnership with the Archdiocesan YouthLinks Training and Assessment Center Inc. of the Commission on Youth, the Kabataan ITO (Information Technology Opportunities) Project which also aims to bring the government closer to the youth sector was launched yesterday in barangay Capitol Site, this city.

The Kabataan ITO, under the auspices of the Department of Labor and Employment, seeks to provide workers in the informal economy online access to government programs and services.

Mario Marababol, corporate secretary of YouthLinks, said that it is a general objective of the project to improve the living conditions of out-of-school youth, out-of-work youth, and workers in the informal sector. With the help of YouthLinks, five satellite parishes within the Archdiocese of Cebu will be identified to provide free tutorials on encoding, Photoshop editing, digital ID, and on the Internet.

DOLE is set to donate 10 brand new central processing units and seven digital cameras to YouthLinks.

A total of 150 youth mentors, or graduates from YouthLinks, also took their oath during the launch yesterday. Each tutor will be assigned to five students with a minimum of 22 hours coursework on IT appreciation. Modules include computer hardware familiarization, computer operations, computer applications, information processing, and Internet operation. — Johanna T. Natavio/MEEV    (FREEMAN NEWS)