SOME 1,400 college students were hired as Zamboanga City Government employees effective on Monday, April 16, under the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES).
City Social Welfare and Development Officer Socrro Rojas said the college students compose the first batch of SPES beneficiaries, which will employ a total of 2,766 college and high school students.
Rojas, who also heads the Public Employment Service Office (PESO), said the work period for each batch is 20 days.
Rojas said the second batch, composed of 1,366 high school students will be employed sometime May to June.
She said the first batch will kick off work in the villages and selected government offices on Monday after their orientation at 9 a.m. at the Vitaliano Agan coliseum.
The SPES is an annual joint undertaking of the City Government and the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) at 60 to 40 percent sharing.
Rojas said the City Government has allocated P15 million for the program this year that caused the increase in salaries of the beneficiaries.
She said each student will have a daily salary rate of P477.73 or a total of P9,554 for the 20-day period.
She added that the 60 percent salary counterpart of the city is P286.60 daily while the 40 percent will come from the Dole. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)