Saudi, Qatar OFWs wooed to come home

March 4, 2018

The Philippine government will entice overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to return home for a chance to get employed locally or elsewhere overseas.

This is what the labor department intends to do with the establishment of a Job Fair Task Force that will conduct a special job fair and skills profiling of OFWs based in KSA and Qatar.

In an administrative order issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the supply-demand profiling and skills-job matching will be jointly conducted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and Bureau of Local Employment (BLE).

Concerned Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO) in the identified countries will do the preliminary skills profiling of the OFWs in coordination with the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB).

Through the joint undertaking, POEA and BLE will conduct employers’ forum and gather the number of vacancies, skills requirement, geographical location (local or overseas), as well as determine the companies interested to join the Job Fair.

Also, POEA and BLE shall process the supply and demand profile and come up with labor market information that will serve as a guide for matching of available skills and employer demand for workers.

OFWs that require further upgrading of skills requirements of the participating employers will be referred to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for training prior to their deployment whether local or overseas.

Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will provide the welfare assistance during the conduct of job fairs and which may lead to the repatriation of distressed OFWs.

The said tasked group is headed by DOLE Undersecretary Claro Arellano who is in charge of DOLE’s Legal and International Affairs, and is co-chaired by OWWA. The members include POEA, BLE, ILAB, and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in KSA and Qatar. DMS