Shipbuilding firm sustains skills with training facility

Faced with manpower shortage problem, FBMA Marines Inc. now banks on its training facility to sustain skills availability and meet the increasing demand from clienteles abroad.

“We are spending at least P60,000 per head, to get scholars for our training school to sustain our manpower,” said FBMA chairman Roberto Aboitiz.

FBMA has established the FBMA Technical Training Center inside its plant in Balamban, to train new skilled workers to work on new ship orders from abroad. This, “train-to-hire” program was opened by the company to address the exodus of skilled workers in the shipbuilding industry to other countries especially Australia.

According to Aboitiz, the center has sustained the company’s efficiency, as it produces at least 25 graduates every six months. In 2007, the company produced 80 new skilled workers for the shipbuilding industry, under this program.

Aboitiz said the company had to find a “remedy” against the active hiring abroad for shipbuilders, especially welders, fabricators, mechanical fitters and plumbers, among others.

FBMA is partnering with different technical and vocational schools in Cebu, to offer these skills training to vocational-technical (Voc-tech) students. The training cost is shouldered by the company and assures graduates of immediate employment.

This way, Aboitiz said the company is making a covenant with every scholar to stay at least three years with the company, if they opt to find greener pastures abroad later.

Aboitiz admitted that with the very attractive job offers for these skilled workers abroad, the Philippines has to accept the reality that it can not compete with the kind of salary other countries are offering, plus the benefits of offering the entire family for migration.

“We can not force them to stay,” Aboitiz said, but at least with the training school scholars-turned-employees have to work with the company for at least three years, “and that’s good enough for us.”

An ordinary welder in Australia for instance is earning P120,000 a month.

One of the welders employed in one of the shipbuilding companies in Balamban told The Freeman that he earns P230 for an eight-hour daily work. This is a gross income excluding deductions from withholding taxes, among others. This could provide a gross monthly income of P5,980 for every welder for a 26 working days a month.

In 2006, FBMA lost 111 workers simultaneously to an Australian-based shipbuilding company that launched an allegedly illegal mass hiring in the Philippines, particularly from shipbuilding companies in Balamban.

According to Aboitiz, the outlook for the Philippines in shipbuilding industry is bullish. FBMA is now negotiating another vessel orders from other continents, such as Caribbean Island, and other countries.

Since the company’s establishment in 1997, FBMA has delivered over 20 vessels to different countries, such as Europe, United States, Australia, and some parts of Asia.

Currently, FBMA is maintaining 500 plant workers, 70 percent of whom are production workers, the rest in technical support and administrative staff.

Aboitiz said with the fragile situation in keeping the skilled workers, the company has to invest in assuring the supply skilled worker through the training center.

He mentioned that if a shipbuilding firm can not deliver an order at the specified time, about US$30,00 business is lost per day.