Local and Overseas Employment

Getting a good education will always be one of biggest investments one person must have to be able to secure a good future. Since good education is very expensive nowadays, majority of the youth have very limited access or opportunity to get this kind of education and would settle for just getting a degree to a college or university they can afford. Scholarships are available but a student should be very good in order to get a good one.

When a high school student is asked what does he or she wants to take up in college, the common answers will be either engineering, medicine, nursing, computer science/programming, business or management or hotel and restaurant management. If the student does not excel or does not pass the board exam, chances are he or she will either be unemployed or have to look for work abroad. There are available positions here in the country but the competition is very stiff and the pay is not that good. If you are planning to have your own family, rent a place and have savings, your salary as an ordinary employee in the Philippines will not be enough. Both husband and wife should work hard and have extra income to be able to afford the necessities to live here in the metropolis.

Since jobs here pay low and are difficult to get, graduates usually find work abroad. When you look at jobs available abroad, majority are for skilled workers. These are nurses, caregivers, welders, carpenters, butchers, etc. If you studied these courses, there are a lot of opportunities for you. But what if you are a graduate of management, computer courses, economics and hotel and restaurant management? These courses are seldom in demand abroad. Skilled workers salary abroad ranges from 40,000 - 150,000 pesos a month abroad as compared to local management jobs that ranges from 15,000 - 30,000 pesos only. Even local bank managers and fast food managers salaries are lower than skilled workers abroad earn in a month.

Filipinos have little or no choice at all when in comes to employment locally. Public school teachers that teach 50-70 students in a class would not even reach 30,000 pesos a month even if they teach until the age of 50. Locally employed nurses sometimes earn below 15,000 a month and are taxed heavily if they are single. Net take home pay ranges from 6,000 - 10,000 a month. Is that figure commensurate to the heavy work they do everyday? Definitely not.

Any other choice? Call centers and BPO. Many of our new graduates now are employed in this industry to earn a decent living. Call centers pay better because of night shift pay, overtime and hazard pay. A number of companies also provide meal allowances, clothing allowances and sales incentives. If a call center agent is good, plus has experience, promotion is also fast. Salaries ranges from 18,000 - 35,000 pesos a month which is much better than the average day job. What is the catch? Your health. A number of studies shows that working during night time causes a lot of diseases and sickness to a person. Low blood, stress and fatigue, low resistance to diseases are just a few causes of problems a call center worker will face in the future.

What can we do? Parents should guide their children on what careers will they pursue to be competitive in their chosen field. Children should also be trained to be young entrepreneurs so that they will be the ones providing jobs and not the ones looking for it. How about earning online? Is it worth teaching to kids? Will there be a saturation point? Education is always the key to a bright future, so we have to make sure that our kids will have the proper education for them to handle all the challenges they will face when they are adults themselves.