In this digital age, automation gets a heavy workload done by just few clicks in the computer terminal.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Davao Region keeps pace with time using yet another Information Technology (IT) tool to simplify what used to be a taxing job particularly for the Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES).

Dubbed as “Online SPES System,” a student applicant for SPES could easily register his application for an available job anywhere where internet is available. Opening the portal www.spes.dole11.net leads the applicant to a simple application form where a unique ID is generated.

Apart from bringing it closer to student-applicants, Marlito Ayala, the DOLE XI SPES focal person who created this excel-based program, said one objective of the system was to simplify a strenuous and complicated task of generating reports and demographic generation and information data-banking.

“The usual application process for the SPES is not changed; it has just been improved and made more efficient for both applicants and the SPES implementers,” Ayala said.

The student-applicants still has to visit the PESO office in their province to submit all the required documents. Those applicants who have registered online need to present their SPES ID; for those who have not, they will be asked to register.
“The online system will act as databank for all those who applied for the program and from there we can track their progress. The system will create for us a warehouse of SPES data,” Ayala said, adding:

“Before, when we need report, it would take us more than a week to have a complete data, but with the present system, it would only take minutes to generate a report which could be sent electronically or can be created as a Portable Data File (PDF).”

“Since it is excel based there is no need for elaborate training. We just had a simple training workshop on how the system works and it had been running since last year the time it was formally made available,” Ayala said.

Ayala said that with the students’ information saved in the databank, it would be easy to inform them when their checks (remuneration) are available to prevent stale checks in the office.

“It is really a work in progress. Once we deem that more relevant data is needed, then we incorporate that to the system. This year we are planning to include data to map out where the applicants reside or where their places of origins are,” he said.

Regional Director Joffrey M. Suyao said the program will surely attract more students and even Out-of-School Youth since the application or registration is done online owing that more students and young people have greater access and spend more time in the Internet.

“It has also made our work, particularly reporting more efficient and less prone to error as every data is computer generated,” Suyao added.