Osmeña eyes mega facility for out-of-school youth at SRP

Local

SCHOOL, work, sleep—repeat. All in one building.

Cebu City Vice Mayor-elect Tomas “Tommy” Osmeña is eyeing a city-backed, self-contained work-study mega facility designed for out-of-school youth who want to finish college while working full-time in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

To be built on a reclaimed five-hectare property at the South Road Properties (SRP), the facility will house classrooms, BPO offices, dormitories, and dining areas in one building.

Osmeña, who is returning to City Hall, envisions it as a transformative space where students can attend classes, clock into work, eat, and rest, without ever having to leave the complex.

“We’re going to get a building where somebody who hasn’t even finished college will be able to be upgraded, go to school, and work at the same time,” Osmeña said. “This is it. This is the big one. We’ll start now. Everything… I’m going to start now.”

Under the proposed setup, a student who works the night shift in a BPO, often synced with U.S. business hours, can attend morning classes adjusted to their schedule, take a short break, and begin their shift.

After work, they head back to their room and rest, all within the same integrated structure.

“The basic issue is time management. They will work, eat, and sleep in the same building,” Osmeña said. “The school will adjust to the office schedule. All the employees of the BPO are students. It’s school and work at the same time.”

Osmeña said the program is designed to be flexible, allowing students to finish their degrees at their own pace. If a student typically needs two more years to graduate, they can stretch that to three or more years, so long as they continue progressing academically while earning a living.

The city will serve as facilitator, with the BPO company and educational institution jointly coordinating the scheduling, logistics, and implementation of the program.

The work-study facility is Osmeña’s third and most ambitious “social laboratory,” following proposals for a subscription-based public transport system and a communal housing and livelihood hub for single mothers.

All fall under his philosophy of “ungovernment,” a governance style that favors practical, data-informed, human-centered solutions over bureaucracy.

Osmeña said the SRP lot originally allocated to the University of the Philippines—which failed to develop the site as agreed—will be reclaimed by the city to host the facility.

“We will get that back,” he said. “And we’re going to make it work for people who are already working but deserve a better future.”

The project aims to lift working-class youth out of stagnation, giving them the tools to climb academically and economically without choosing one over the other.

“This is not just about fairness. If someone’s not doing their part, we’ll replace them. We want this to work,” Osmeña said. “This is about getting one thing right, then building from there.”(TGP)