DSWD Helps Poor Youth Become Call Center Agents, Office Staff

Life took a positive turn for 25 unemployed Negrense youth who came from household-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program when they joined the call center industry and had the chance to earn for themselves and their loved ones.

Through the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), these youth landed jobs as Customer Service Representatives of the Panasiatic Solutions Incorporated, Teleperformance Incorporated, and Telequest Incorporated.

SLP is a community-based capacity building program that seeks to improve the socio-economic status of beneficiaries.

Under SLP, the youth underwent a 20-day finishing course for call center agents, in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and VMA Global College, a private institution.

As call center agents, the youth are now earning between P9,000 and P10,000 a month, a substantial amount that complements the grants their families are receiving from Pantawid Pamilya.

“Dahil po dito sa bago kong trabaho ay natutulungan ko po ang pamilya ko. Nakakapagbigay po ako ng pandagdag sa gastusin sa bahay. Ganoon din na nagkaroon ako ng added skill dahil sa training na naibigay sa akin na magagamit ko pa sa paghahanap ng mapagkakakitaan (My new job has enabled me to help my family. I can now share in our household expenses. At the same time, I gained added skills with the training given to me which I can use to look for other sources of income),” said Mary Ann Apdo, one of the beneficiaries who used to just stay at home and help her parents take care of her siblings.

High school graduate Donna Mae Jaena, 19, used to work as a sales lady, but her earnings were not enough. Hence, she joined the SLP Skills Training and currently works as a call center agent.

For 21-year-old Rodel Samonte, who has not finished college, his training under SLP really helped him get a job.

Working as a call center agent for seven months now, he said that if not for the skills he gained, he would have remained jobless up to this time.

DSWD Secretary Corazon-Juliano Soliman said that one of the goals of the Department is to sustain the gains of improving the lives of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries by giving them capital assistance for their chosen livelihood projects or by giving them access to employment through SLP.

“For a holistic approach to assist poor families, we converged the Pantawid Pamilya and SLP to ensure that beneficiaries will have the chance to improve their economic status from survival to self-sufficiency,” Sec. Soliman said.

From January 2011 to October 2015, SLP has served a total of 851,505 families wherein 87 percent or 740,665 are Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries and 13 percent or 110,840 are non-Pantawid Pamilya assessed as poor through the Listahanan or data base of poor families.

Pantawid Pamilya is a human development program that invests in the health and education of poor families, primarily those with children aged 0-18. It provides monthly cash grants to beneficiaries who comply with the conditions of sending their children to school, bringing them to health centers, and attending the Family Development Sessions.

To date, a total of 4.4 million households are covered by Pantawid Pamilya nationwide.

Source: www.dswd.gov.ph