Philippines trains "super maids" for the world (Feature)

By Girlie Linao Dec 23, 2009, 5:04 GMT

Manila - Susan Cambe has not worked overseas before as a domestic helper, but is confident that she won't disappoint the friend who recommended her to an employer in Spain.

Cambe, a 39-year-old mother of two, has just completed a two-and- a-half month training course on household services at the state-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

'I can do any household chore and much, much more,' she proudly proclaims. 'I can administer first aid, make flower arrangements and fold napkins like they do in hotels.'

Cambe, who will be leaving for Spain next year, said she applied for TESDA's super maid training programme after she and her husband decided that one of them would go abroad to ensure they can pay for their children's education.

'Tuition is so expensive, so I want to go abroad to earn enough money to put my two boys through college,' she told the German Press Agency dpa.

The super maid programme is just one of hundreds of courses being offered by TESDA for Filipinos looking for work abroad. It is, however, among the most popular courses and can be availed for free under a government scholarship.

Cambe said that in addition to being taught techniques in cleaning, students in the super maid programme learn to bake bread, cakes and cookies, operate appliances such as vacuum cleaners and floor polishers and cook international cuisine.

'Our trainers know that we want to go abroad so they teach us how to cook international food,' she said. 'I now know how to make beef stew, salads and dressings and soups. I even know how to make Mediterranean food such as moussaka.'

TESDA Director General Augusto Syjuco said nearly 24,000 people enrolled in the household services training from January to August this year. In 2008, an estimated 54,000 people joined the super maid programme and found jobs abroad.

'The super maid programme was designed to be a skills-upgrading training for domestic helpers so that they can become not just ordinary maids but super maids receiving higher salaries,' Syjuco said.

'Many of our graduates now work as household service workers in various parts of the globe,' he added. 'In 2008, the top five countries of destination of newly hired household workers were Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.'

Other popular training courses at TESDA are computer programming and hardware servicing, bartending, commercial cooking, massage therapy and dressmaking.

Syjuco said these particular programmes were identified following a study of the requirements of domestic and international labour markets.

The challenge was to keep track of the 'ever-changing demands of the global economy,' he said, to give the students a better shot at finding work after they graduate.

According to government estimates, there are already between 8-10 million Filipinos who live and work abroad, many as domestic helpers, construction workers, nurses and caregivers.

These overseas Filipinos sent home 16.4 billion dollars in remittances last year, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.

Migrante, a global alliance of Filipino migrants and their families, said an average of 3,000 Filipinos leave each day to work abroad, making the Philippines the third top labour exporting country in the world.

While acknowledging the benefits of working abroad, Migrante said that because of the state's labour export policy, the government has failed to develop the local economy and has become too dependent on foreign markets.

'The Philippine state is ever more unlikely to turn inward and develop the national and local economy especially in the face of the global economic crisis,' the group said in a recent report. 'There is no self-sustaining economy to speak of.'

Migrante also noted that the labour migration policy has become necessary to 'defuse social tensions' arising from high unemployment.

Celeste Racines, 40, hopes to be among the graduates of the TESDA super maid programme who have found work abroad.

Racines said she has been out of work for the past two years after being retrenched, when the electronics factory that she worked in for nearly 10 years closed shop in 2007.

'I didn't know what to do then,' she said. 'I tried to find new work but I was over-aged.'

Racines said she tried to start her own business, but the attempt was unsuccessful 'because people in (her) home town were too impoverished.'

'The TESDA course is a life saver for me,' she said. 'I am proud to be a super maid.'