THE government is planning to create a pool of “multiskilled” workers to address the labor shortage in the construction industry, according to an official of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
In an interview, DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) Director Dominique R. Tutay told the BusinessMirror that this will be the agency’s additional option, aside from increasing the number of new construction workers.
Under the DOLE’s plan, existing construction workers will be encouraged to learn more skills related to their industry so they could maximize their employment in a construction project. For instance, Tutay said a welder could train to become a carpenter or even a mason.
“Usually, the contract of construction workers end once their role in the project ends. If they have multiple roles, they will be employed in the project longer,” she said. She also said construction workers are likely to be easier to train in other construction related skills because of their workplace experience.
“They are already able to witness the said skills based on the works of their colleagues in the same [construction] project,” Tutay said.
She earlier said the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) is having a difficult time attracting new trainees for construction skills training due to the impression that construction jobs are labor-intensive, but lack benefits.
Last week, Tesda vowed to ramp-up the number of its trainees for construction-related skills by forging a partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In a related development, Tutay said the DOLE is organizing a summit with the DTI and Tesda to determine the specific labor demands of the construction industry.
“We want is to identify what specifics skills are really needed? How many and where?” Tutay said. “Of course, our initiative will complement the [construction] road map [of DTI].”
Image credits: Roy Domingo