Skilled workers getting scarce – and old

MANILA, Philippines – Highly skilled Filipino workers fit for overseas employment are getting fewer – and older.

The Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME) yesterday said the thinning and aging population of highly skilled Filipino workers is now a serious concern for local recruitment agencies.

“The country is not generating enough qualified skilled manpower and if the situation is not reversed, we can expect a continuing decline in hiring of Filipino workers abroad,” FAME executive director Lito Soriano said.

Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), Soriano said the number of re-hires for the past two years showed that the country is still producing enough skilled workers but foreign employers are still tapping the same pool of skilled workers.

The number of rehires reached 666,158 in 2009, up by 19 percent from 559,809 in 2008. It reached 597,426 in 2007.

Soriano said over 300,000 job orders remain unfilled because few talents that meet the requirements of overseas employers are produced.

Local recruiters are especially having difficulty filling positions for oil production engineers and oil riggers in the Middle East.

“We could only fill up 40 percent of the job orders we are getting from the Middle East and soon we will just be deploying re-hires abroad as the pool of new and qualified manpower continues to decline,” Soriano said.

He said government efforts to produce more welders and other skilled workers for overseas deployment, yielded low results. Because of this, Soriano said colleges and universities should offer courses that train students for overseas employment.

“Universities and colleges should produce not only students that are academically qualified, but also technically equipped so we could cope with the emerging labor markets,” Soriano said. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star)