THE Department of Information and Communications (DICT) in Negros Occidental is signing a tripartite agreement with the City Government of Victorias and Office of Third District Congressman Francisco Benitez for the implementation of the agency’s Digital Jobs PH program.
Romeo Tome, provincial officer of DICT-Negros Occidental, said the initiative will benefit 25 resident-scholars from Victorias City, who will undergo virtual assistance training.
Tome said this will be a six-day face to face training and 21 days online session.
“The agreement signing is tentatively on January 15, the launching of the program will be on January 23,” he said, adding that if the training starts on January 27, the graduation of the 25 scholars will be on February 28 this year.
Victorias City is the first recipient-local government unit (LGU) of the DICT’s Digital Jobs PH for this year.
“We are using the savings from last year’s budget,” Tome also said.
Rolled out in the country in 2017, the Digital PH program mainly aims to provide technical trainings to unemployed and financially unstable residents in the province enabling them to land ICT-related jobs.
Under which, the DICT provides trainings on courses including general virtual assistance, digital marketing and e-commerce, content writing, search engine optimization and advertising, social media marketing and advertising, graphic design, and web development.
The recipients should be 18 years old and above, at least high school graduates, and computer literate.
For the virtual assistance technical training, the modules included web research and data entry; audio and video transcription; email handling and calendar management; social media management; chat support, help desk and technical support; and freelancer 101.
In December last year, 17 scholars in Talisay City graduated the virtual assistance training. Two of them were “medalists” for immediately obtaining online jobs.
They are on top of the 24 scholars in San Carlos City and another 22 in Cadiz City have availed themselves of the program in 2017 and 2018, respectively. They finished digital marketing and e-commerce course.
Also in 2019, 22 graduated the digital marketing and e-commerce course in Kabankalan City in October.
In Escalante City, 20 graduated the virtual assistance technical training last month. Of the number, three were considered “medalists.”
The DICT provided the trainings and identified the appropriate module depending on the budget allocation.
The recipient-local government units, on the other hand, are taking charge of the training venue, computer, food and snacks of the trainers, and internet connection as counterpart.
Tome reiterated that through the program, they are able to produce potential workforce in the province.
“Digital Jobs PH is really intended for employment generation,” Tome said, adding that “through the trainings it provided, we are able to upgrade the local talent pool.”