Global youth efforts concretized in RP

The four-day International Youth Festival held on August 10-14 ended a series of activities yesterday. The program was held in line with the United Nations World Programme of Action for Youth and the annual commemoration of International Youth Day in August. The Programme seeks to enhance awareness of the situation of the youth and to increase recognition of their rights and aspirations. It also aims to strengthen the participation of the youth in economic and social development.

The UN General Assembly defines "youth" as those individuals belonging to the age bracket of 15 to 24 years old. Approximately one billion youth live in the world today. This means that approximately one person in five is between the age of 15 and 24 years, or 18% of the world’s population are "youth". By 2025, the number of youth living in developing countries will grow to 89.5%. Therefore, UN deemed it necessary to take youth issues into consideration in the development agenda and policies of each country. Using a set of indicators, it is estimated that over one third of all children in developing countries are living in absolute poverty. There is increased recognition that investing in youth can be beneficial to poverty alleviation efforts. Youth are increasingly consulted in drafting poverty reduction strategy papers, and they are also increasingly identified as a major group affected by poverty. Strategic plans are focused mostly on education and employment.

In line with UN’s Youth Agenda, one of the Philippine government’s concrete efforts for the benefit of the youth, is being implemented by the Department of Labor and Employment. The Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) is mandated under Republic Act No. 7323, and its objective is to develop the intellectual capacities of children of poor families and harness their potentials for the country’s well being. Specifically, the Program aims to help poor but deserving students pursue their education by providing income or augment their income through encouraging their employment during summer and/or Christmas vacations. The SPES is open to all qualified high school, college or vocational students or drop-outs and interested employers.

SPES is a unique program in that both public and private sectors are involved in giving employment and education opportunities to the youth. Partner-employers or companies are given incentives, allowing them to pay only 60 percent of the salaries or wages of the youth-trainees. On the other hand, aside from being given the opportunity to be trained in an actual work environment, student-trainees are also given the balance of 40 percent in the form of education vouchers paid by the government to a school or university in their behalf. From 1993, the SPES has placed more than 1.2 million young trainees in local and private companies nationwide.

The SPES is a component of the President’s Kabataan 2000 Program along with the Work Appreciation Program (WAP) of the Department of Labor and Employment. The WAP’s main objective is to provide the youth the opportunities to be able to appreciate work and develop proper work ethics by exposing them to actual work situation. In this regard, they will be given opportunities to gain experiences in working environments provided by the sponsoring companies, relevant to performance of specific work.

Reports have shown that most of the youth trainees have given employment in local government offices. Some private corporations like Jollibee, Fujiweld, Manila Plastic Products and other manufacturing companies in the NCR have also joined and benefited from the program, at the same time, giving employment and education opportunities for the trainees. We call on other private businesses to participate in this endeavor to help our youth. Their increased participation expresses true corporate social responsibility and partnership with the government that would impact on economic and national development objectives.