JFC pushes passage of apprenticeship measure

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign businessmen in the country are pushing for the approval of a proposed measure in the Senate which seeks to reform the National Apprenticeship program, citing that passage of the bill could be vital in addressing the high unemployment rate.

In a statement, the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) said they support Senate Bill 136 which seeks to introduce reforms to the country’s apprenticeship program.

“This bill deserves urgent consideration by the Senate in view of the extremely high unemployment rates among young Filipinos. Regrettably, the level of productive investment — both foreign and domestic — has for too long been insufficient to create enough decent jobs to meet the growing supply of young workers in the country,” the JFC said.

The groups noted the future would be bleak for many young Filipinos if the employment situation persists.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show the unemployment rate was estimated at 6.5 percent with the number of jobless Filipinos at 2.602 million in October 2013.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), for almost two decades, has been administering an apprenticeship program which allows apprentices to be trained by a private firm for up to six months and to receive a fee of 75 percent of the applicable minimum wage.

The JFC noted approximately 25,000 apprentices have participated in this program, but such a small number indicates the importance of reforming the program so that it could provide a means to a better long-term job for much larger numbers of young Filipinos.

“One important reform would be to allow the period of training of the apprentice to be much longer than in the current law. A revitalized and reformed apprenticeship program can provide sufficient time for young workers to gain knowledge and skills while providing the companies where they work sufficient time to give them the right training and to assess their individual working skills,” the groups said.

At the end of the apprenticeship period, apprentices may be offered employment directly in the factory or office where they have been trained and if not, may have greater chances of getting hired by other companies or starting an entrepreneurial career.

The groups said companies should be encouraged to train more apprentices than needed for the workforce by deducting from the taxable income twice the training cost for those apprentices that would not be offered employment after the apprenticeship period is completed and would be released as trained professionals into the labor market.

The groups said funds must also be made available for internal branding during the implementation of the law.

The internal branding could be directed to parents, relatives or friends financing the education of the youth, explaining that many jobs do not require college degrees and  a successful apprenticeship program followed by work experience could easily be complemented by targeted studies later.

The branding could also be for companies advertising job openings which should explain that not all jobs advertised need a college degree as a minimum requirement and a successful high school graduate completing an apprenticeship could be a better-skilled and more loyal employee.

While the JFC supports the bill, it is recommending that Section 11 which contains a requirement for the Apprenticeship Contract to include “training allowances prescribed by industry subsectors through tripartite consultations which in no case shall start below 75 percent of the applicable minimum wage” be modified with the phrase “provided, however, that, contributions to the apprentice by national and/or local government shall be considered in computing the 75 percent”.

“Our purpose in proposing this language is that it will allow national and local governments to subsidize trainee wages as may be necessary to compete with the wages paid to workers in countries currently considered more competitive than the Philippines which are attracting much more FDI (foreign direct investments) in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) than the Philippines,” the JFC added.

The JFC counts the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese and Korean foreign chambers along with the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters as its core members.