Labor day Issues

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today said that the country should embark on an ambitious workers training and retraining program to create a vast pool of skilled and globally-competitive manpower which is ready to fill jobs in the country's growing economy or in high-paying jobs overseas.

Angara said that equipping the local manpower with sought-after skills through modern training programs is the "best gift" the government can give to Filipino workers in a dramatically changing labor environment.

Angara said as the economic activities of the world have moved to areas "unknown of and unheard of" just a few years ago, skills training has to be adjusted to meet current labor and employment realities.

The global nature of the economy and the shattering of trading borders have also hastened the easy movement and deployment of skilled workers from one country to another and the Philippines, a leader in the supply of skilled labor, have to be a leader "in the area of training and retraining workers," he said.

Angara said that the competitive place of the overseas Filipino workers or OFWs in the global labor market will also be enhanced by workers' training and retraining .

"Training and retraining of workers is the equivalent of export products with so many value-added. With training and retraining, you vest the Filipino manpower with pluses that will be most appreciated in the global job market," said Angara .

Angara said that it was not a mere coincidence that the first years of the Clinton administration focused heavily on job training and retraining and made workers training the anchor of its labor policy.

Robert Reich, the economist and academic who was the Clinton's labor secretary, was the main exponent of training and retraining workers, said Angara, and he wrote a book about this.

"Labor has to have a premium especially for a country that supplies manpower to all corners of the globe. Training and retraining is the surest way to give labor a premium," he said.

Angara said that the legislative and the executive should be grounded on the breakthrough developments on labor and manpower so relevant and timely policy could be crafted.

"This is a must for any government," he said.