DepEd to give Muslim youths jobs, training

ILIGAN CITY – In an effort to help out-of-school Muslim youths get a head start in getting jobs, the Department of Education (DepEd) will begin giving them Arabic language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE).

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said 1,000 out-of-school youths would be trained under the ALIVE program to help them land jobs in the technical and vocational sector. Lapus said Iligan City would be the first beneficiary of the ALIVE program in the Mindanao region after its successful pilot test in Metro Manila and Regions III and IV earlier this year.

Under the ALIVE with Technical Vocation Education and Training (TVET) project of the DepEd and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Muslim youths are given Arabic language and values education prior to “tech-voc” skills training to prepare them to meet possible foreign and local job recruiters.

Some 25,000 Muslim youths stand to benefit from the ALIVE-TVET program.

Lapus expressed optimism that the project would help provide good opportunities for out-of-school Muslim youths.

“The main reason why we’re educating people is to make them productive citizens and not just give them a diploma. At the end of this whole process is job generation,” Lapus said.

“TVET-ALIVE will not only address the lack of employment prospects in the South but also reduce the broader conflict that time and again puts Mindanao in the spotlight,” he added. – Rainier Allan Ronda