ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga Sibugay—The Department of Labor and Employment Region 9 office has started screening for 2,760 slots of summer vacation working students under the government’s Special Program for the Employment of Students here.
DoLE City Field Office Chief engineer Wesley Tan said the program seeks to provide poor but deserving students an opportunity to pursue their education by encouraging them to work during summer and Christmas vacations.
To be specifically employed, Tan said, are 2,760 students—1,400 of them from college and 1,360 from secondary school which, incidentally, was recently lengthened by the Department of Education under its K to 12 program from four to six years, broken down to four years junior high school and two years senior HS.
Tan said the hired college students will comprise the first batch who “will work from April 11 to May 6 while the second group of HS learners will function on May 5-28 with each of them to receive a daily pay of P280, the current daily minimum wage of employees in Zamboanga Peninsula region.”
The DoLE will shoulder 60 percent of the students’ salary while the remaining 40 percent will be paid by their employer, the city government, Tan said, adding that the labor department recently appropriated for locally hired student-workers P11 million which includes payment for their insurance.