THE Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has collaborated with a local academy to employ adults with special needs.
The Vanguard Academy, a special education institution in Makati City, Metro Manila, has collaborated with the SBMA Labor Department to send off 11 young adults with special needs to selected SBMA Departments and Freeport locators where they will work as on-the-job trainees (OJTs).
SBMA officials led by Labor Department Manager Atty. Melvin Varias, together with Le Charmé Suites Chief Executive Officer Josephine Pellicer and Meat Plus Café Group Operations Manager Eizon Wilmar Sampang welcomed the students.
“This pilot immersion program is noble to us because it involves students with special talents. This is unique to us. I hope that this multipartite partnership will be sustained even in the coming years because we believe that we can help prepare them for possible gainful employment in the future,” Varias said.
Five of them were assigned to SBMA departments (three for Tourism and two for Law Enforcement), four to Le Charmé Suites (two each for the cafeteria and hotel front desk), and two to Meat Plus Café.
In 2021, the VA launched the Workplace Immersion Program (WIP) on an online platform due to the pandemic. Students completed the program with the school’s partnerships with Viva Entertainment, Ayala Foundation, and Bonifacio Art Foundation, where the OJT work focused more on the visual arts skills of the students.
The academy is also taking it up a notch this year by piloting WIP on a face-to-face platform allowing them to work on-site but with guidance by job coaches from the academy.
One of their goals is for their students to have assisted or fully independent part- or full-time employment in small or large businesses by empowering individuals of all abilities, regardless of age, diagnosis whether typical or special that they may eventually be able to contribute to and be part of the society.
Earlier, the VA’s job coaches conducted an orientation session with its WIP partners on the basics of handling adults with special needs. Then, proceeded to assist the students as they undergo the formality of a job interview with their respective employers, and a tour of the facility the students will be working in.
Jean Patricio, Vanguard Academy Director for Academics, Employment, and Independent Living Skills, said that they always use the term “all abilities” to refer to different levels of abilities, whether typically developing, or individuals with autism, individuals with Down’s Syndrome, individuals with intellectual disability, or individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), among others.
“We are using WITH—with autism, with Down’s syndrome and not their actual names like autism, Down’s syndrome. It’s always WITH because we want to highlight that those diagnoses are just a part of them and not who they are. These individuals are more than their diagnosis,” she said.
During the opening program and send-off ceremony, the SBMA, Le Charmé Suites, Meat Plus Café, and Vanguard Academy officials sealed the agreement to formally commence the implementation of the two-week WIP of 11 adults with special needs.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Rolen Paulino expressed elation about having adults with special needs complete their training at the Freeport.
Paulino also added that Subic Bay Freeport welcomes workers of all kinds of groups, including members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer communities.