Business Mirror
Mar 3, 2006
Govt tracking sectors with brain drain
By
Reporter
THE government is set to conduct an inventory of industries that are in danger of losing skilled workers to address what many experts warn has reached a point of a possible collapse of competent workforce or brain drain.
Rosalinda Baldoz, chief of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), said the agency formulated a strategy at "determining critical skills," an inventory of industries that are losing skilled labor because of overseas deployment.
In an interview at the start of the National Manpower Summit Thursday, Baldoz said the government decided to do an inventory of the labor supply to have "systematic" data on the actual labor force vis-à-vis the demand.
"We tend to generalize," she said, in answering the question of whether the
Citing as an example the medical profession. Baldoz explained that the country has enough nurses but admitted that the problem lies with the available supply of nurses who specialize in the intensive care unit, operating room, and who are also instructors.
In determining critical skills, the POEA formula involves conducting an inventory of the local demand, available labor supply and perspective entrance, minus the number of workers deployed overseas.
"The supply should be 120 percent more than the demand. Anything less than that is already [considered] critical skills," she told reporters.
Once a profession is identified as critical, the POEA will compel a worker with an application for an overseas job to submit a six-month notice to his or her local employer before the government processes the applicant's papers.
"If they want to leave, they should give six months' notice," Baldoz said, referring only to professions identified to be losing skilled workers. She said initially, the inventory shall focus on the aviation, nursing and teaching professions.
She said it is important that workers falling under critical skills should be "kept domestically" before they leave abroad to allow the local market to make up for their loss.
Baldoz said the six-month notice is legal because under Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers Act, the government can impose a moratorium on the number of workers deployed abroad.
She expressed optimism this measure will not affect the country's deployment of workers and that foreign principals will not mind waiting for months to receive Filipino applicants.
"Maybe it will also place pressure on the part of the employers to set up training facilities here if they really want to hire Filipinos," Baldoz noted.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/2006/march/03/03%20frontpage%20govt.php
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