A House leader on Friday called on the government to implement job-matching and “reskilling” programs for overseas Filipino workers who want to return home to retrain them for employment opportunities.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said conducting job fairs here and overseas to recruit OFWs for the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program would have to be complemented by a “reskilling” program to cover Filipino migrant workers who need to learn new skills to meet the new job requirements under an economy fast embracing technological change.
Villafuerte, vice chairperson of the House committee on local government, said his proposal could be part of the government’s solution to the current situation that befell OFWs in Kuwait after President Duterte encouraged them to come home.
He said that job-matching and reskilling programs are needed to fast-track the rollout of the Duterte administration’s massive infrastructure buildup.
“Not everyone will have the skills to take part in the jobs and industries to be created by the “Build, Build, Build” program and even for those with the necessary skills, they might need to be retrained because of the new technologies that would be used in modernizing our infrastructure.”
“Conducting job fairs and job matching programs to encourage our OFWs to return home will not succeed unless these are complemented by retraining programs to enable our OFWs to learn new skills to meet the demands of the domestic job market,” he added.
Villafuerte said the usual scheme of providing returning OFWs with seed money to set up small businesses or livelihood projects should not be a “one-size-fits-all solution” because not everyone has the time, inclination and willingness to take business risks to be a micro- or small entrepreneur.