Considering Apprenticeship as a Strategy for Generating Skilled Workers

The apprenticeship program is one of the means private companies use to generate skilled workers for their specific needs despite mismatches between their requirements and the skills possessed by job applicants.  A training modality under what are classified as enterprise-based training (others include learnership and on-the-job training), trainees learn by observing and learning from experienced skilled workers inside the company.  Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director-general Sec. Joel Villanueva recently encouraged private firms to step up their participation in the apprenticeship program as a means of getting workers because "the best place to acquire skills is in the workplace".  (Manila Bulletin, September 3, 2011)

Considering apprenticeship as a generator of skilled workers involves several things for the firm.  The following are some of them:

  • Are the competencies and skills needed by the firm not available in the present pool of unemployed who are looking for work?  The pool of possible applicants remains large as around 7.4 percent or 2.91 million Filipinos remain unemployed and around 40 percent of these had some college or tertiary level education.  (Philippine Star, March 16, 2011)  It has to be considered that there is a significant surplus of education, nursing, business administration, information technology, and hotel and restaurant management graduates (and more in the pipeline).  (Philippine Star, September 5, 2011)  In addition, more than 23,000 employed skilled and professional Filipino workers have been laid off here and abroad as a result of the financial crisis.  (Department of Labor and Employment [DOLE], cited in Philippine Daily Inquirer; Trabaho Philippines.Net, January 28, 2011)   If the skills the company is looking for are possessed already one way or another by the unemployed, then it may be more costly to train apprentices who do not have qualifications or who do not have the work experience for the vacancies. Doing so would be like building a house from the ground up when you have the option of moving in to a finished unit at lesser cost.  (It should be noted that only those do not have the skills or the experience in an occupation are qualified for the apprenticeship program.)
  • Is the number of workers needed more than 20 percent of the regular workforce?  Department of Labor and Employment Order No. 68-04 ("Guidelines in the Implementation of the Kasanayan at Hanapbuhay Program") prohibits companies from participating in the apprenticeship program when the number of apprentices exceeds 20 percent of the regular work force.  The intention behind this prohibition is to avoid abuses of the program, but this can close the chance for a fast-growing company to acquire a sizable number of its workers through the apprenticeship program especially during the times it needed the most to train and hire people.
  • Are the occupations pertaining to the vacancies "apprenticeable"?  Not all occupations (or vacancies for that matter) can be applied under the apprenticeship program.  Generally, only "employers in the highly technical industries" are permitted to apply for apprenticeship programs and "only in apprenticeable occupations" as approved by the DOLE.  (Articles 60 and 61 of the Labor Code)  Thus, if the vacancies the company wants to fill-up are not included among the occupations approved for the apprenticeship program, then it cannot implement it. 
From these, the apprenticeship program would seem to work best in companies needing workers in highly technical or specialized aspects of their operations whose competency requirements are not present ins substantial form among their pool of applicants or from what they can get out of the unemployed; the number of workers that will be accommodated is not huge and the occupations to be filled-up are apprenticeable.  Despite the limitations, the apprenticeship program can be an effective tool for creating skilled workers for the company (as mentioned by Villanueva) since:
  1. Apprentices learn the exact technologies, processes and techniques used by the company thus making him productive even before his regular employment; and,
  2. The company saves 25 percent in the labor cost since it can pay apprentices only 75 percent of the minimum wage or enjoy an additional deduction from taxable income of 50 percent of the value of labor training expenses, if it pays them the full minimum wage.
For companies that will do their homework, these could be enough incentives to pursue apprenticeship program.  For those that won't, doing so could be highly inefficient.

Books on apprenticeship from Amazon.com worth reading:


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