By Perla Aragon Choudhury

The money sent home by overseas Filipino sailors rose by $108 million to a new record of $2.501 billion in the first nine months of 2009, an increase of or 4.51 percent from $2.393 billion over the same period in 2008, according to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

TUCP secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said the rise in remittances from sea-based migrant Filipino workers is due to increased enlistment by ship owners in Europe and Asia.

“A growing number of European and Asian shipping firms is disbanding their multinational crews, and replacing them wholesale with all-Filipino personnel that are younger and more able,” says Herrera.

“Foreign employers find Filipino sailors quick learners, and easier to train compared to other nationals. This may be due to their superior instruction here, apart from their ability to understand English,” he adds.

About 229,000 Filipino sailors are on board merchant shipping vessels around the world at any given time, data from the Department of Labor and Employment show.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reports that in 2007 – the year for which the most recent data are available – Filipino seafarers were employed by 1,157 registered/accredited manning agencies, up from 869 in 2006.

The Philippines, says POEA, has been the world’s leading supplier of seafarers since 1987, making it the manning capital of the world.

Overseas assignments

Data in 2007 showed that Filipino seamen were scattered aboard vessels bearing various flags of registry: Panama – 51,614; Bahamas – 29,681; Liberia – 21,966; Singapore – 10,308; Marshall Islands – 9, 772; United Kingdom – 8,172 ; Malta – 7,513; Cyprus – 7, 052; the Netherlands – 7,017; and Norway – 6, 975.

By vessel type, here are the 2007 statistics on Filipino seamen: passenger-type – 47, 782; bulk carriers – 42, 356; containers – 31, 983; tankers – 25,011; oil/product tankers – 14, 462;   general cargo ships – 10,754.;  chemical tankers – 7,502 ; tugboats – 6,610;  pure car carriers – 5,742; and gas tankers – 3,471.

By type of work, the 226,900 local seafarers deployed overseas in 2007 were assigned as follows: seamen – 31,818; oilers – 19,491; ordinary semen – 17,355; mess men – 7,810; chief cooks – 7,778; bosuns – 7,737; third engineers – 7,056; third mates – 6,599; and waiters – 6,388.

Global crisis

In late 2008, even as the global financial crisis was wreaking havoc on virtually every major economic sector, the manning industry suffered minimal setback in terms of job losses.

“The bulk of the seafaring industry is not as affected as people might think,” says Miguel Angel Rocha, vice-president for business development of CF Sharp Crew Management, Inc., one of the country’s leading manning companies. His firm is now the major business of CCF Sharp, a port agency business began in the late 1930s by his grandfather and business partner CF Sharp. It is also the first Filipino manning company to be certified as compliant with ISO 9000 Standards.

“The manning industry is a trailing indicator,” Rocha tells Planet Philippines in an interview. “Only after an event will it be affected. Lately, ships had been 15% laid up, or out of service, and by 2009 the figure was 30%. But jobs were not lost because of the `hot’ or `warm’ nature of the industry – a ship always needs engineers and crew to operate, maintain and mobilize it.

“Chinese factories stopped ordering raw materials and so bulk ships were the first to get affected. By November 2008 there was a decrease in daily chartering from $180, 0000 per day to $3,000-5,000 per day in September. After Christmas [of 2008] and New Year [of 2009], there were no more orders and container ships were down. We don’t see a significant loss of jobs but we do see slower growth.”

Prospects

Rocha is optimistically guarded about the prospects in 2010.

“Even if the global economy gets better, it will take a long time before we see a recovery in our industry,” he stresses.

He warns that if the market worsens, jobs will be harder to find.

“Also, seafarers now working might have to work less and stay on vacation longer. There is no growth as ship owners try to maintain their pace of work where they have 15 persons on board for the 10 actually needed.”

But then, Rocha explains, the shipping industry is cyclical. “A new ship means new crew in boom times. Now this is going to change and so they’re laying vessels but not selling them for scrap, and giving the crew  longer shore leave. But then again, things might turn around and it will be boom time again.”

Poaching of officers

Rocha is actually more concerned about the poaching of senior officers, from master officers and chief mates to chief and second engineers, which could have a more dramatic impact on the industry.

The global shortage of officers is oftentimes remedied by a greater-rotation-cum-shorter-vacation solution. The problem is only a recent development, according to Rocha. Officers and ratings used to be available, mostly from the West.

“But as more ships were built in the ‘90s and today, as the economy of the West expands, British, German and Norwegian officers can earn as much or even more on land. They have left and have been replaced by officers from Poland and Ukraine.”

The vacuum could have been filled up by the local manning industry but unfortunately, there are not enough Filipinos with the required skills and training.

Lack of training

“There are 80 to 100 maritime schools offering BS Marine Transportation and BS Marine Engineering courses with a curriculum of three years in the classroom and 12 months on board a ship prior to state board exams, but less than 20 percent of the students get on board,” he laments.

Rocha cites two top maritime schools in the Philippines where slightly under 15% of the most recent graduating class have trained on a ship. Their graduates got certificates of academic equivalency but they are not on board because the majority of ship owners do not make a provision for cadets on board, who would also have to be paid.

“The problem is no one is willing to challenge ship owners,” he continues. “Some 280,000 students graduate each year. That seems a lot of seamen who could get a higher income for their families. But people don’t see the uphill battle in getting the license, and educators prey on seamen. Going abroad is not always pleasant experience and can be very daunting.”

But Rocha notes that there is a bit of positive news on the horizon as ship owners have lately invested in training. For one, the Norwegian Shipowners Association has a program for cadets.

But without support from POEA and the Commission for Higher Education (CHED), Rocha fears that maritime schools might not participate or offer enough slots in the training and development of seafarers.

It remains to be seen if the government and the manning industry could come up with policies and measures to address the problems and challenges. Unless there is a serious effort to meet them head-on, less and less Filipino seafarers may find their way into the open seas.

By Carmela Fonbuena    

Foreigners trawl the World Wide Web for one of the country’s hottest exports, the Filipino mail-order-bride, a convenient way to traffic Filipino women. “Mail-order bride” was a term coined  in the 19th century to refer to the way American soldiers literally ordered brides to join them in areas they were assigned. Today, it has acquired a different connotation as technological leaps and bounds have become easier for men to “order” their wives from the net in much the same way they do their shopping online. READ FULL STORY.

By Leandro Milan

The country’s education system continues to turn out college graduates whose training and skills are not attuned to the needs of the labor market both at home and abroad. This is the lament of human resources and labor recruitment officials who decry the continuing popularity of glamorous and white-collar courses that produce diplomas but not well-paying jobs.

The criticism had been voiced many times in the past by business leaders and politicians but both government and the private sector have failed to institute meaningful and concrete measures to correct the mismatch between skills and jobs. The issue gains added urgency in view of the government’s inability to provide jobs and its continued dependence on the overseas job market. Problem is Philippine education is not well suited to the requirements of the global economy as well.

“Many overseas employment opportunities abound in sub-specialties of various occupations but the Philippine education system is either ill-equipped and/or unprepared to offer corresponding courses to the demand but rather do a ‘one course fits all’ mentality,” says recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani.

This, he says, has led to “a disastrous oversupply of unemployable graduates.”

“In-demand careers like respiratory therapists, cardio technicians, laboratory, ct-scan, are often passed over in favor of more high-profile careers like nurses, says Geslani.

 Serious gap

 Lito B. Soriano, president of LBS-E Recruitment and executive director of the Federated Associations of Manpower Exporters, Inc., observes that there has always been a “serious gap” in the education system that persists in having curriculums that are “unsuitable” in providing their graduates with the possibility of employment.

In a study titled, The OFW Economic Engine, Philippine Reality and Required Reform Arising from the Global Financial Crisis, Soriano noted: “Of the one million college graduates annually, only five to ten percent are employed in jobs consistent to their course, only 30 to 40 percent will find any employment. The vast majority of graduates will remain unemployed.”

He says the country is producing too many nursing and tourism graduates who are unqualified to be hired abroad.

“Over 2,000 nursing schools have an annual total enrollment of over 420,000 students and each year, 100,000 new nurses take the board exams yet only 40 percent are able to make the grade,” Soriano points out.

According to him, there are also few job openings for nurses in the country since local hospitals can only absorb less than 5,000 nurses each year while overseas opportunities are very limited.

“Hospitals abroad have very strict requirements like two to three-year experience in specialty or clinical wards with large hospitals having a two hundred bed-capacity,” he explains.

 Soriano adds that there around 400,000 licensed nurses who are not gainfully employed and there is an estimated 80,000 board-passers joining the ranks each year. Many of them even end up paying for a job in a desperate attempt to obtain the necessary work experience.

POEA data

 Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show only 10,000 nurses are able to work in the Middle East, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada every year.

At the same time, the country generates more than 120,000 hotel and restaurant management (HRM) graduates every year, says Soriano. Most of the HRM graduates also need additional skills training to be able to qualify for employment overseas.

Labor Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz confirms that nursing and HRM courses post the biggest number of graduates for the past years. She says many of those who took up HRM and nursing courses want to go abroad but they cannot immediately qualify for employment overseas due to lack of the necessary experience required by foreign employers.

To curb the growing number of unemployed graduates of nursing, HRM and so-called glamour courses, human resources and labor recruitment specialists urge the concerned government agencies to undertake immediate reforms.

Soriano suggests that non-performing and sub-standard nursing schools be required to enforce necessary measures to improve their performance or face suspension.

For his part, Geslani challenges the colleges to evaluate their current course offerings and make them relevant to the needs of the global economy.

“Producing non-employable graduates of courses for which there is no demand could be viewed as unethical and merely a method of generating cash dividends for stockholders or owners,” maintains Gerslani.

The POEA meanwhile should regularly provide the current global job information so Filipino students could be properly guided in choosing marketable careers. Two examples of in-demand jobs in the Middle East are medical technicians and therapists.

Go voc-tech

Geslani and Soriano urge college and high school graduates to go to vocational and technical schools if they want to improve their chances of landing jobs. The government, they say, should provide more vocational and technical training opportunities to the youth.

According to Geslani, strengthening the training programs of Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) will give more unemployed Filipinos opportunities for local and overseas jobs.

He and Soriano have been batting for massive training programs for the one million graduates from college and another million from the high school ranks, pointing out that blue-collar jobs are the wave of the future.

Lito Soriano, president of LBS-E Recruitment, said high school graduates should consider taking technical vocational courses at this time if they want lucrative job opportunities.

“The Philippines can take advantage of the pressing need for skilled workers in trillion-dollar projects in the Middle East if many of our high school graduates will shift to schools offering tech-voc subjects like auto servicing, technical drawing/drafting, building wire installation, shielded metal arc welding, machining, pipefitting, metal craft, and carpentry,” Soriano points out.

Demand outstrips supply

He says the country is unable to meet job orders abroad due to the shortage of workers with vocational skills.

“Recruitment companies are already competing with each other for the very few skilled workers for their job orders mainly from the Middle East.”

Most foreign employers, he adds, are looking for highly-qualified construction workers such as welders, flame cutters, pipe fitters, and carpenters due to construction booms in various countries abroad.

“Recruiters are hard pressed to supply qualified skilled manpower for the multi-trillion dollar projects in Saudi Arabia and Qatar whose development plans have not slowed down despite the rock-bottom prices of crude oil,” says Soriano.

In Saudi Arabia alone, there are job orders for housekeeping, gardeners, equipment technicians, water treatment, civil technicians, plumbers, painters and all maintenance positions on top of the 4,000 Filipino health workers needed there.

According to Tesda Director General Secretary Augusto Syjuco, about 22,540 plumbing and 20,687 welding job opportunities are available in countries such as in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Russia, Australia and South Korea.

Skilled workers, such as welders and plumbers, receive higher salary overseas.  Syjuco cites a welder who receives as much as $6,000 or P293,070 a month abroad.       

“The growing mismatch of workers’ skills and the need of the industry have resulted in numerous overseas job vacancies unfilled by OFWs,” says Soriano. “It’s a matter of choice for students who might want to start a career abroad.”