PAMPANGA Governor Dennis “Delta” Pineda and Third District Board Member Rosve Henson have led the payout of salaries to 600 students employed under the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Capitol’s Public Employment Service Office.

Each of the students received salaries covering 20 days of work worth P10, 061.80.

Pineda and Henson handed the checks to the student beneficiaries at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center.

SPES is an employment bridging program that aims to augment the family's income of poor but deserving students. Henson said that the province was keen in continuing the program with the DOLE to help students earn extra income for their families amid the economic challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

He added that the program also instills in the beneficiaries an early sense of the value of honest work and professionalism.

“The SPES program is also a training for the real work environment. Students get a taste of the importance of hard work and develop that sense of value for the dignity of labor,” Henson said.

Under the program, DOLE shoulders 40 percent of the salaries of beneficiaries, while their employers, government agencies, such as local government units, and private companies and other sponsor institutions, pay the 60 percent.

The Provincial Government shouldered P6,037.08 of the total salary received by each beneficiary while DOLE shelled out P4,024.72 for each student.