Recruitment exec says high
pay awaits voc-tech grads

RECRUITMENT analyst Loreto Soriano yesterday said most of the in-demand jobs today require skilled workers as he urged the estimated one million new high school graduates to take up technical-vocational (tech-voc) courses.

Soriano said tech-voc courses could help solve the job-mismatch phenomena in the country that results in high unemployment and underemployment. "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," Soriano said. "The country is not meeting global orders due to the workers' lack of skills. Recruitment companies are competing with each other for the very few skilled workers for their job orders mainly from the Middle East."

Soriano, a former president of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, said among the most numerous jobs today are auto servicing, technical drawing/drafting, building wire installation, shielded metal arc welding, machining, pipefitting, metal craft and carpentry. He said the salary for these jobs is even higher than those earned by white-collar workers.

"The salaries of these highly skilled workers are higher than some white-collar jobs in North America, where a pipefitter can earn as much as $7,000 a month compared to service workers earning $3,000. Oil rig workers are known to earn as much as US$10,000 a month while working for only three weeks at a time," Soriano said.