SM Foundation’s Kabalikat Sa Kabuhayan farmer-graduate Hiyasmin Baling

San Miguel Corp. (SMC), in cooperation with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), has expanded its livelihood skills and job training program in Sariaya, Quezon province to address unemployment and lack of opportunities due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected the country since March.

The SMC-Tesda Sariaya project is the second such program that SMC has launched in a week, following the opening of a similar program last September 30 in Bulacan province, where the company is building the P734 billion Manila International Airport, which is seen to create more than a million direct and indirect jobs during its construction and about 30 million tourism-related jobs once it’s completed.

SMC president and COO Ramon S. Ang said the partnership with Tesda, headed by its Director General Isidro Lapena, will equip residents in Sariaya and Bulacan with new skills that will allow them to take advantage of more job and livelihood opportunities and become more resilient in this time of pandemic.

In Sariaya, SMC is set to build a modern, state-of-the-art integrated agro-industrial complex that will include a brewery, grains terminal and feed mill, a ready-to-eat food manufacturing plant, a fuel tank farm and port facilities.

At the same time, Ang said that investing in major facilities and infrastructure will pump much-needed funds into the economy, accelerating further the country’s present and post-pandemic recovery.

The initial batch of trainees consist of 50 residents from San Miguel-Christian Gayeta Homes.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/15/public-square/smc-expands-livelihood-program-in-quezon/780592