THE UNITED States Agency for International Development and Philippine Business for Education-led project YouthWorks PH concluded their anniversary month by sealing an P80 million deal with partners from the private and public sectors.

During the skills partnership forum on June 30, partners from Luzon gathered in Taguig City to discuss the latest innovations in the booming sectors of construction, finance, and food services.

Collaborating in the big-ticket project are Jollibee Foods Corp., Fruitas Holdings Inc., DATEM Inc., Integrated Contractor and Plumbers Inc., De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Joy Nostalg Foundation, and returning partners such as Career Builder Skills Training and Assessment Center, CloudEats, and AsiaPro will help facilitate recruitment, training and employment of almost 6,000 youth across the country.

Present at the event were USAID Office of the Education Director Thomas LeBlanc, PBEd Executive Director Justine Raagas and YWPH Chief of Party Rhea Peñaflor. Former YWPH trainees who are now employed also joined and shared their experiences with the program.

“YouthWorks PH gave us the opportunity to become trainees in carpentry and I am now a skilled worker. We can overcome everything, especially, for our families. To my fellow trainees, don’t give up. It can be a difficult journey but we will all succeed,” John Carlo Aquino said.

Aquino trained under Career Builder Skills Assessment and Training Center and is now employed under DATEM Inc., a sub-contractor of the North-South Commuter Railway project that will ease the transport of more than 200,000 passengers.

“YWPH will continue to forge partnerships for more training opportunities in resilient industries to give the youth a fighting chance as we gear them up to be more productive members of the workforce post-pandemic,” LeBlanc said.

To date, YouthWorks PH has more than a hundred partners in all of its major training sites in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bohol, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Zamboanga, South Cotabato, Sarangani, and General Santos.

More than 15,000 work-based training positions were also created, and more than 5,000 youth NEET have been placed in the Flexible Training for Work program.