About 500,000 of the 1.2 million members of the overseas workers program (OWP) of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation are inactive, an officia

SunStar: Zamboanga City - Sixty people have already enrolled to undergo free computer skills training, as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa), in partnership with Microsoft Philippines, inaugurated Tuesday the Community Technology Learning Center (CTLC) in this city with the expansion of Microsoft's Tulay: An Unlimited Potential Program for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

Microsoft Philippines gave a grant of $44,000 to Kapisanan ng mga Kamag-Anak ng Manggagawang Migranteng Pilipino Inc. (Kakammpi) to set up a Tulay center for OFWs and their families in this city.

The program gives OFWs and their families access to both technology and technology training. With the help of Owwa, Tulay delivers sufficient training to provide skills for otherwise unskilled workers. The CTLC is located at the Owwa regional office in this city and aims to reach out to 800 OFWs and their families by the end of this year.

It has 16 computer units provided by Microsoft Philippines. The 15 units will be for the students while the remaining unit is for the class instructor.

Owwa Regional Director Liddy Rasul-Tañedo, also a labor attaché, said the Tulay center serves as a venue, where OFWs and their beneficiaries receive training in basic computer fundamentals from Internet basic to web design.

It also provides access to email and video chat to enable the OFWs and their families stay in touch with each other, Tanedo said.
Each class will have a total of 15 students depending on the module they prefer to take. There are eight modules available for the interested OFWs and their dependents to choose, Sheryl Joaquin, Owwa 9 information officer, said. "We recognize that OFWs encounter a lot of challenges when working overseas, and one of these is loneliness.

We want to help the OFWs preserve and strengthen their ties with their loved ones," Kakammpi-Mindanao spokesman Remon Maria Flores, said. "By working with organizations like Microsoft, we are able to address the need for access to technology and at the same time to provide IT skills training for OFWs and their families," Flores added.

As of 2006, four out of the 10 OFWs come from Mindanao, according to the Center for Migrant Advocacy Philippines. Zamboanga Peninsula has the highest number of woman-workers deployed abroad over the last three years. "With the expansion of Tulay in Zamboanga, we hope to bring technology to more Filipinos and their families," Microsoft Philippines Managing Director Antonio Javier, said. "By working with Owwa and NGOs, like Kakammpi, we are enabling OFWs to realize their full potential with the aid of technology.

Through the new Tulay Center in Zamboanga, OFWs and their families can now learn skills that will hopefully help them to find better career opportunities and give them a way to communicate with their families across the distance," Javier said.

With the opening in this city, there are already a total of six Tulay Centers in the country. The others are in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, La Union, Philippines Overseas Employees Administration (POEA) office in Ortigas and Owwa center in Manila.

The program is also in place in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. This year, Microsoft is also extending the program to Rome and Milan.
Tulay utilizes the Unlimited Potential curriculum - customize training modules developed in the US and used in more than 30 countries - to train OFWs and their families in basic computer fundamentals, word processing, spreadsheet, internet and e-mail fundamentals, digital media, presentation and database fundamentals.

This curriculum has been accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). To date, Tulay has reached out to more than 5,000 OFWs and their families who have been able to find better employment opportunities. - GMANews.TV

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