Labor chief here today to inaugurate US$40T Tulay Project
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Marianito Roque is here today for the inauguration of the Community Technology Learning Center (CTLC), a component in the US$40,000 Tulay Project for Overseas Filipino Workers including their dependents.
The Tulay Project, is an information technology project which includes lessons on computer fundamentals, digital media, internet worldwide and web design. It is a joint project of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Microsoft Philippines and HALIGI Foundation of Vice Mayor Jed Mabilog.
OWWA OIC-Reg. Dir. James Mendiola said the Tulay Project is unlimited potential and computer literacy program for OFWs and their dependents that got a funding of US$40,000 from the Microsoft including a US$15,000 for software for the digital media fundamentals, internet and world wide web fundamental, word processing fundamentals, presentation fundamentals, database fundamentals, spreadsheet fundamentals, computer fundamentals and advance computer course. The CTLC is located at the DOLE-OWWA regional office.
A memorandum of agreement regarding the Tulay Project was signed yesterday by Mendiola, Vice Mayor Mabilog and Marni Halanes, OWWA officer 2, at the vice mayor's office. The program will cater not only to OFWs and their dependents in the city but all over the region. It aims to give computer literacy class to 850 beneficiaries.
Mendiola said Western Visayas, to include Iloilo City, is the fifth recipient of the Tulay program. The other centers for the information technology project are in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Manila and La Union. Centers in Rome and Milan in Italy are likewise established for Filipinos working abroad.
The Tulay Project is a pet project of Secretary Roque. Roque was the OWWA administrator before he was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Labor Secretary.
Mendiola said they will admit the applicants in a first-come, first-serve policy. Interested parties can avail of the information technology classes regardless if they are sons, daughters and relatives of domestic helpers or those high paying jobs abroad. There will be four sessions everyday to accommodate the interested OFWs and their dependents.
Each class can accommodate 60 enrollees. Philip Parel, a gold medalist in the 2005 12th Philippine National Skills competition was hired as instructor of the program. The free of charge one-year program will cover 40 hours training on computer literacy for OFWs and their dependents for two sessions every morning and afternoon Monday to Saturday, said Mendiola.