Guam needs 40,000 welders

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino skilled workers can partake of 40,000 jobs in Guam when construction work for a large military base starts in the US territory, according to technical-vocational educators in Davao City.

Joel Botoy, director of JIB Welding Academy in Davao City, said the projected huge demand for welders in Guam is causing some job recruitment agencies to knock on the doors of technical-vocational centers for skilled welders.

“Welders will be very in demand not just in Guam but also in other countries where industries are undertaking expansion or new industries are being started,” he said.

Botoy said welders in Guam could earn as much as the equivalent of more than P70,000 since the pay per hour is $8 an hour.

“Construction is booming right now and will continue to boom because every country is always undertaking some construction for whatever industry they are planning to develop,” he said.

Botoy said welding should be aggressively pushed by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to young Filipinos as a technical-vocational education option in view of the global demand.

“Welders will always be needed,” he said.

Botoy said TESDA should also encourage tech-voc schools to improve their equipment and facilities so that Filipino welders will have a good reputation for their quality skills in other countries.

JIB Welding Academy has become the country’s biggest welding school with 42 workstations equipped with miller welding machines used by industry in developed and developing countries, he added.

Botoy said they have agreements with local industries where their welding graduates get on-the-job training with pay with top companies such as Davao Light and Power, Davao Water District, cement giant Holcim.

“The owners invested so that the equipment that our students will train on is the equipment that they will have to work with abroad,” he said.

Davao City-based educator Joji Ilagan-Bian, who owns JIB Welding Academy as well as other educational institutions in Davao, said that TESDA could help tech-voc institutions by making sure that only deserving schools get tech-voc scholarship funds from the government.

“Because we give quality welding training, our program is quite expensive,” she said. “So the government can help those who want to go into welding skills training with scholarships.”

Skilled Filipino welders can get high pay in many countries such as in the Middle East, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Guam, Botoy said. –Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star)