Taking Advantage of Returning OFWs' Need for Training

Due to the present chaos in the Middle East thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are expected to return home. While many of these workers will go back to the oil-rich region once the situation stabilizes, they may not return to the same job or company they used to work for.  Others might try to apply for work in other more stable countries such as Canada or Australia, especially if they have already acquired the necessary work experience required by these countries. Many others, of course, will return home simply to wait for the situation to settle down and return to the same company. This means that, whether these workers realize it or not, they will need to have training while they are in the Philippines.

The training that returning OFWs will need could be one or a combination of two or more of the following:

• Training in qualifications related to what they already have. For example, a welder who had extensive experience in oil and gas might want to get some training in welding that is more focused on construction-related projects.    
• Training in qualifications not related to what they already possess.  For workers who plan to work in countries outside the Middle East (especially in countries whose economies are more diversified), there will be a need to train in qualifications that are entirely new to them.  Thus a pipe fitter in the Middle East now might decide to train as a butcher to take advantage of job opportunities in Canada.
• Upgrading training in qualifications they already possess.  As the Middle East deal with the effects of the world financial crisis and the challenges of new economic directions brought about by possible political reforms, there may be an increased need for foreign workers with higher skills especially if national governments attempt to create more jobs for their local populations.  Or workers might try to take advantage of new positions vacated by highly skilled workers who decide to work elsewhere.  In both of these cases, there will a need for skilled workers to train in higher certification levels along the qualifications that they already have.
• Training in common competencies such as use of computers or occupational safety.  While most skilled workers focus on what is regarded as the core competencies of their qualifications, the many directions occupations in the Middle East could take in the short-term might demand that workers become better skilled in competencies expected of all workers in a particular industry such as oil and gas.  The emphasis on these might increase as companies attempt to retain the best of their workers amidst the political and economic problems affecting many countries in the region.

For technical-vocational institutions to respond properly to these training needs, they will need to understand precisely why a certain OFW is seeking training.  A good pre-training interview coupled with some career planning session conducted by a competent guidance counselor or trainer would be highly advantageous.  Likewise the use of recognition of prior learning or RPL will make whatever training the OFW want to undertake highly efficient.  And of course, the training itself should be modular or competency-based.

Unfortunately, not many TVET institutions in the Philippines are truly implementing these supposedly built-in features of competency-based training delivery in their programs.  Thus, many OFWs might not get the most from their training.  

For the returning OFW, it is always best to take a look at how a particular training institution delivers its training program before enrolling.  If a TVET institution's training delivery doesn't look that much different from the way he was taught in high school or in traditional colleges or universities, then it is highly possible that that institution is not implementing a competency-based mode of training delivery.  The following are the some features of competency-based training delivery:

• Modular;
• Individualized or self-paced;
• Based on work that must be performed;
• Training materials are directly related to competency standards;
• Assessment of trainee is based on collection of evidence related to performance of work vis-a-vis industry standards;
• Recognition of prior learning;
• Allows trainees to enter and exit at various points of the training program;
• The trainer is not the sole source of knowledge.

Books from Amazon.com you might want to read:

Developing Technical Training: A Structured Approach for Developing Classroom and Computer-based Instructional Materials
Building Effective Technical Training: How to Develop Hard Skills Within Organizations
Developing Training Courses : A Technical Writer's Guide to Instructional Design and Development
Demystifying Technical Training: Partnership, Strategy, and Execution