In the Philippines, youth unemployment and the difficulty of transiting from school to work has been a persistent and significant problem. Thus, the government and policymakers have identified policies and programs which can increase the probability of finding work for these jobless youth and raise their productivity. The Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES) is one of the government’s interventions promoting youth employment.

SPES was created to harness the potentials and develop the intellectual capacities of the youth. Using the framework of the program theory, this rapid assessment of SPES identified the different components of the program: primary activity (providing temporary employment), mechanism (wage subsidy) and the intended output (payment of salaries for income augmentation and increase school retention). The description of the processes and mechanisms of the program elicited information on the important steps, links, and phases of the expected transformation process as well as implementation issues between implementers, partners, and beneficiaries. As indicated in Figure 1, information and feedback (as shown in dotted lines) gathered have also specified the different areas of concern and the necessary recommendations to bring about the desired program effects.

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Title: A Rapid Assessment of the Special Program on Employment of Students (SPES)
Researcher: Miraluna S. Tacadao