It’s summer time in the Philippines once again. For college students who are not planning to enroll summer classes, they can either spend time on vacation or spend it to work and make some money. Working on a summer job would not only give you some extra cash you could use to pay your next enrollment fee or to buy anything you want, but it would also help you gain some working knowledge and experience that will develop your skills and help you build your future career. If you are looking for something profitable this summer, here are some summer jobs in the Philippines for college students that you may consider.
Join DOLE’s SPES this summer
SPES or Special Program for the Employment of Students is a program of the government through the Department of Labor of Employment (DOLE) that aims to assist poor yet deserving students pursue their education by encouraging employment of those in the secondary level during summer and/or Christmas vacations and of those in the tertiary, technical or vocational education levels any time of the year.
To participate in the SPES, the applicant should be a student or Out-of-School Youth, 15-25 years old, have an average passing grade during the last school term attended, and the combined net income after tax of his or her parents, including his or her own income does not exceed the latest annual regional poverty threshold level for a family of six as determined and provided by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
To learn more about DOLE’s Special Program for the Employment of Students, you can read more details here.
Try part-time online job opportunities
If you don’t like to work like a full-time employee, you can try some part-time jobs online. If you love to write or you are studying journalism or mass communication, you can write news and articles for websites owners or bloggers who need regular content for their sites. You can also offer editing or proof-reading services to them.
Depending on your expertise (e.g. computer programming, graphic design, education and tutorial, marketing, accounting and bookkeeping), you can find a job on the Internet. You can read this list of online jobs to check if your expertise is included.
Most online jobs have no employer-employee relationship since you are more considered as a freelancer, and the people or companies you are servicing are considered as your clients. Thus, online jobs are more flexible than actually working in a government or private office.
To find more freelancing jobs online, you can visit job marketplaces like oDesk.com, Guru.com, Freelancer.com and Elance.com. You can also check out Sulit.com.ph to search some online jobs in the Philippines. And before I forget, there are also some cool gigs for $5 at Fiverr.com.
How about part-time business opportunities?
If you can take some risks, how about starting a part-time business instead? We have already published some lists of business ideas in our previous posts. You could check out this list of home-based business ideas or this list of Internet business ideas which you could start as a job right at your home.
Some of the business opportunities online could also be started even with a small capital, especially when it’s about selling your skills or expertise. For example, if you are good at writing or expressing your thoughts, you can start blogging, attract a decent number of traffic or visitors, and then start earning dollars from online advertising and other monetization schemes.
Time is gold
Use you free time wisely this summer. Spend it to earn not only money for your personal finance, but also knowledge and experience for your personal and professional development. As a college student, you are probably young at this time, and your youth is one of the best advantages you can utilize to achieve success earlier than the others. Therefore, think of being a young outstanding worker or even a successful young entrepreneur. It is always great to supplement the knowledge you learn in school with the knowledge you will learn from actual experience during school breaks.
Victorino Q. Abrugar is a marketing strategist and business consultant from Tacloban City, Philippines. Vic has been in the online marketing industry for more than 7 years, practicing problogging, web development, content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and consulting.
There are indeed a lot of ways for students to earn during the vacation. All they need is their perseverance to really earn rather than waste their time going out with friends.