MORE than 300 training slots in the power and food and beverage industries will be up for grabs for Filipino youth on the celebration of National Tech-Voc Day on August 25.

Youthworks PH, an initiative backed by the United States Agency for International Development and Philippine Business for Education, collaborated with Solar Philippines, Katherine’s Cafe and Virlanie Foundation for the project.

“While our private sector partners equip our youth with work and future-ready skills, we need the government’s support to solidify vital policy support in order to institutionalize better systems for the next generation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Goebel, USAID Office of Economic Growth and Democratic Governance Chief, and Acting Deputy Mission Director.

“PBEd has been doing a lot of effort as an advocacy group that puts education at the core of national development. And we believe that the youth plays an important role in our thrust as an organization which can be seen in our areas of work: teaching and learning and workforce development,” PBEd Board Member and Knowledge Channel President and Executive Director Rina Lopez said.

Under the agreement, Virlaine will handle the recruitment of trainees. It also pledged P100,000-worth of training subsidy.

Meanwhile, Solar Philippines, a leading power provider in the country, will provide 300 training slots for land survey associates in the provinces of Batangas and Quezon.

Katherine’s Cafe, a budding restaurant, will facilitate 30 on-the-job training slots for food and beverage services trainees under the Flexible Training for Work program.

The program will also offer 2,759 training positions for the next batch of trainees in the fields of construction, food processing and cookery.

With more partnerships being sealed and lined up, YouthWorks PH has provided more than 11,000 slots for unemployed and out-of-school youth giving access to free training opportunities to almost 7,500 beneficiaries.