THERE is currently a demand for at least 100,000 construction workers nationwide, not only because of the Build, Build, Build infrastructure program but also because of the plan to rebuild Marawi City.
On the sidelines of the Kapehan sa Dabaw press conference Monday, June 11, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) Compostela Valley specialist Mafel Joanne Gamale said President Rodrigo Duterte mandated Tesda to train at least 100,000 construction workers.
Gamale said the Tesda Central Office has yet to allocate targets of trained workers per region. She said the additional manpower will address the increased demand for construction workers in line with the rehabilitation of Marawi.
Locally, the in-demand construction-related jobs include masonry, plumbing, electrical installation and maintenance, construction painting, and tail setting. Although welding is under the metals and engineering sector, it was also included in the list.
In a previous interview, Eddie Fuentes, member of the board of directors of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (Pice) Davao City chapter, said the shortage of construction workers not just in the region but nationwide is primarily caused by the migration of skilled workers and construction professionals.
Fuentes said with the many infrastructure projects of the country, it is most likely that it will experience shortage as the good graduates produced by the different colleges and universities opt to go abroad.
On the other hand, jobs that are in-demand abroad are that of welders, cooks, baristas, slaughterers, and construction workers.
“For now, we are still short of baristas but we still continue to train more with the increasing demand abroad,” Gamale said.