SM CITY VALENZUELA’S OVERSEAS JOB FAIR OFFERS 2,977 GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES

As the heat index in the Philippines continues to reach unprecedented levels, SM City Valenzuela has served as a beacon of hope for job seekers. Drawing a substantial crowd in the early hours of the morning, the mall transformed into a bustling sanctuary as eager individuals flocked to its atrium in search of employment. 

2,977 job opportunities were made available to eager applicants, all under one roof. This initiative not only provided relief from the scorching heat but also streamlined the job-hunting process for many individuals. 

"We understand the challenges that job seekers face, especially during these extreme weather conditions," said SM City Valenzuela Assistant Mall Manager Cenen Pamintuan. "By organizing this overseas job fair, we aimed to create a conducive environment where applicants can explore numerous employment opportunities conveniently without having to endure the sweltering heat," Mr. Pamintuan added. 

Employers from overseas employment agencies participated in the event, offering positions in sought-after destinations such as Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore, China, and other Asian countries. Representatives from various industries, including healthcare, hospitality, engineering, and information technology, were also on hand to engage with potential candidates.

The event's success not only underscores SM City Valenzuela's dedication to economic development but also highlights its role in providing vital resources to the local workforce, serving as a catalyst for progress in the community.

Filipino Healthcare Workers Discover Credible Overseas Jobs through Online Portal

Have you ever dreamt of living and working abroad? You're not the only one. The Philippines, renowned for its exceptional educational institutions and medical colleges, consistently produces top-tier healthcare professionals. Every year, hundreds of thousands of licensed Filipino healthcare workers pursue overseas employment, motivated by the prospect of career growth, higher pay, and the opportunity to work with the latest technologies in healthcare. In 2021, the Department of Health (DOH) estimated that 316,000 licensed Filipino nurses migrated overseas, marking a trend that continues to surge as more countries recognize the exceptional skills and qualities of Filipino healthcare workers. Just this year, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) reported that by May 2023, 4,000 nurses had already been deployed abroad, surpassing half of the country’s maximum annual allocation of 7,000. This highlights the increasing global demand for Filipino medical professionals.

However, countless others are deprived of the same opportunities. Some fall victim to fake job advertisements, while others struggle to meet the job requirements, have unverified credentials, or limited finances. Fortunately, TrueProfile.io, an internationally recognized online healthcare career hub with over one million members, is expanding its presence in the Philippines to help bridge this gap and empower Filipino healthcare workers to prepare, apply, and secure medical jobs with credible international employers.

Not Your Typical Job Site

Considered the leading marketplace for healthcare professionals worldwide, TrueProfile.io is already a trusted choice for over 61,000 Filipino professionals pursuing overseas careers. The platform’s commitment to supporting the success of healthcare professionals is evident through its strategic partnerships with global healthcare organizations, recruitment agencies, and government regulators. Together, they streamline the job application and hiring process, providing a comprehensive support system for applicants from the initial application through to deployment.

Unlike traditional job portals that burden job seekers with placement fees, TrueProfile.io operates free of charge, removing financial barriers and giving healthcare professionals control of their careers.

Empowering Filipino professionals

In the past, Filipino job seekers often relied on private agencies, limiting their choices. Today, TrueProfile.io offers access to over 3,500 international jobs, allowing members to shortlist posts matching their experience and preferred employer, role, and location, and apply directly. Applicants are also encouraged to create a Digital CV and save their credentials and licenses within a Digital Wallet. This convenient feature allows candidates to manage and have full control of their information through blockchain technology, making it easier to access and share with potential employers.

TrueProfile.io goes beyond job listings, providing a range of career development services and resources. These include credential verification, licensing services, access to English language preparation, and concierge services. Members also benefit from expert career guidance to choose destinations aligned with their career aspirations. Additionally, they gain exclusive access to a dedicated virtual local community on Facebook, specifically tailored to the Filipino healthcare network. Within this community, they can exchange insights and address any concerns related to working abroad.

“TrueProfile.io serves as a unique online career hub, dedicated to supporting the professional growth of healthcare specialists. We recognize the invaluable contributions made by healthcare professionals worldwide and remain committed to empowering them by providing access to a wide range of growth opportunities. Our platform functions as a marketplace offering personalized services, including the creation of Digital CVs, Digital Wallets, verification, and concierge services. These services help professionals to secure rewarding employment opportunities that unlock their full potential. Ultimately, our mission is to enhance their quality of life and that of their loved ones." said Sunil Mudgal, Head of TrueProfile.io.

TrueProfile.io’s credential verification service confirms the authenticity of educational and professional credentials, including college degrees, professional licenses, employment records, and good standing certifications. This verification is mandatory for many overseas positions, granting verified candidates the trust of employers, often resulting in priority status, expedited application processing, and enhanced salary offers.

Mudgal further explained the significance of the Digital CV, a streamlined resume designed to enable nurses, doctors, medical technicians, and other specialists to showcase and preserve their verified credentials and skills within a Digital Wallet. This feature significantly boosts applicants' appeal to employers. They can also make their Digital CV visible to international employers and headhunters with a simple click, increasing their chances of being headhunted by recruiters and healthcare partners on the platform.

The Benefits of a Career Abroad

While pursuing a career abroad may not be for everyone, the thousands who embrace this journey often find the experience personally, financially, and professionally rewarding. Tales of hardworking nurses or medical technicians who improved their families’ financial standing or settled their debts by working in other countries are not uncommon.

"Filipino healthcare workers have also been widely recognized worldwide for their outstanding contributions to the field. TrueProfile.io has opened the doors of opportunity wider for Filipino healthcare workers. Since the platform is free and accessible to all, more professionals in varying stages of their careers have a chance to discover and chart their career paths. Our global presence, particularly with healthcare leaders in the UK, Ireland, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, offers limitless employment opportunities," said Michelle Ibarra, Director of DataFlow Group, the principal of TrueProfile.io.

Aside from career growth, Filipino healthcare professionals gain exposure to new cultures, languages, and diverse healthcare systems, enhancing their skills and resilience. TrueProfile.io offers a clear path to a brighter international future in the healthcare sector. Professionals can unlock their full potential by signing up at TrueProfile.io for a clear path to a brighter future abroad.

Investment Incentives Matter for Industry Development and Jobs generation

With rising globalization and  economic integration through free trade agreements, competition for foreign direct investments has heightened. Even within regional groupings like the EU and ASEAN, countries compete and reinforce their tax and other incentives to attract and influence the decisions of investors especially if all the basic infrastructures and investment climate are relatively similar to each other.  In countries like Thailand and Vietnam, investment incentives contributed to achieve rapid growth. Developing countries would even increase incentives to make up for certain infrastructure handicap or disadvantages.

As DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said, “Not all incentives are wasted, not all incentives are bad.  Incentives are able to attract investments into the country which would not have come in considering the advantages of other countries in terms of infrastructure, cost efficiencies, labor costs or resource availability. Incentives can help compensate for the disadvantages in locating in our country.”

Usec Rodolfo added “At this point, and following President Duterte’s mission to make lives of the Filipinos comfortable, we need all the jobs we can generate, to help uplift their lives out of poverty.

“Investors who have availed of incentives have likewise paid revenues on other tax dues coming from their operations.  Taxes were paid such as on withholding taxes from salaries, VAT, real estate taxes and the net effect is positive revenue contribution to the government”, Rodolfo said.

Based on TIMTA data from 2015 to 2017, the top ten PEZA enterprises paid total taxes of P45.3B while income tax incentives availed amounted to P45.1B resulting in a net revenue position of P0.2B.  Their exports which accounted for 22% of the country’s total reached US $40.7B in the same period. Their local purchases totaled P110.1B. In the same period, number of workers per year averaged 165,300.

Rodolfo cited that one high-tech electronics company posted a cumulative net tax revenue of P3B during its presence in the Philippines from 1981-2018, as its total taxes paid stood at P5.2B versus its income tax incentives availed of P2.2B.  During the period, exports totaled $3.9B, local purchases of P22.2B, salaries and wages paid amounted to P67.6B while employment expanded from 3,378 workers in 1990 to 24,222 in 2018, just for that company.

According to Rodolfo, in terms of BOI income tax holiday, companies also contribute revenues to government in the form of other taxes paid and the ratio is around 1:4.7 or for every one peso incentive, the companies pay around P4.70 for other taxes.   In 2017, the BOI Total Incentives Availed was Php27Bn; but Total Taxes Paid was Php128Bn. More importantly, BOI incentives are time-bound. After 4yrs, there is no foregone revenue but the Tax Payments continue on.

Based on the above, Rodolfo concluded that “incentives do not all result in leakages.  They definitely result in investments, job creation, expansion of domestic capacities and Net positive revenues to government.  So let us manage the transition period better.”

He reiterated the DTI Secretary’s position that “We are for the tax reform proposal especially in making the incentives timebound but we have to carefully manage the transition, and not rush the cutting of incentives such as the 5% GIE that we promised to the PEZA locators. Affected exporter-locators have expressed concern that the change in the system may compel them to redirect their expansion plans elsewhere and even risk the possible transfer of their current operations to other countries.  There is a risk and we should minimize all the risks as we need all the jobs we can generate.

We should therefore be careful in the transition for those who are 100% exporters and labor intensive and are paying more than what they receive in terms of incentives. We also need to take into account innovative companies that are upgrading their products and moving up the value chain along with companies whose activities address gaps in and whose operations are crucial to the supply or value chain or activities that would increase competition in the domestic market.”

Specifically we should consider a 5-10 year range of transition.  In the meantime, the GIE can also be brought up to 8% so there can be an immediate additional revenue that can help balance the planned reduction in Corporate Income Tax.

DTI: New Technologies Will Not Lead to Job Loss but Will Bring in New Types of Jobs, Better Productivity

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez dispelled fears over possible job losses due to the emerging new technologies in various industries.

"Technology leads to innovation and new approach in doing things. It won’t always lead to loss of jobs but rather provide opportunities for the industry to increase productivity and introduce new high-paying jobs for Filipino workers. We should welcome it and be ready to adapt to this phase of industrialization. In fact, continuous innovation is needed if companies are to remain competitive," said Sec. Lopez.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) chief acknowledged technology is essential to improve efficiencies, and productivity.  He also noted that upskilling is an important adaptive strategy for Filipino workforce to remain in demand in any type of business.

"People will have to be upskilled and retrained to upgrade their current skills and acquire new ones to remain relevant.  There are current programs integrating new skillset requirements with schools and training centers to prepare the students and the current workforce. Many companies also provide upskilling and retraining programs as well as apprenticeship opportunities," shared Sec. Lopez.

The trade chief emphasized that technology change is not just happening now as there have been different periods of industrialization-- from the first to the fourth Industrial Revolution-- where forms of jobs changed but the human labor market remained relevant and needed. This started with manual labor to produce things, leading into the advent of mass production and concepts of having production lines where workers learned how to run and work with machines.

Sec. Lopez underscored that when people worked with machines, jobs were not lost as it opened other areas of employment such as manufacturing, servicing, and maintenance of machines.

He cited the entry of automated teller machines (ATMs) in banks as an example, noting that there was a fear back then that bank tellers would lose their jobs. As of today, bank tellers are still present and needed with more value added functions, focusing on account management and customer service. Jobs were not lost since the ATMs also serve the transaction needs of customers 24/7, beyond office hours and tellers were not performing these tasks anyway. Thus, the use of ATMs provided greater customer service and better productivity.  Sec. Lopez added that the loading of cash in each ATM as well as its maintenance still require human labor.

The coming of internet and connectivity brought a lot of new opportunities in e-commerce, more buyer-seller platforms such as Airbnb, eBay, Grab, and tons of opportunities such as Youtube-ing, in game development and gaming, digital advertising and networking.

"The case of ATMs is the same with the advent of robots and mechanization, which usually perform repetitive, dangerous or high-precision jobs.  Humans are still needed to design, manufacture, program or train the system software and maintain the robots" Sec. Lopez added.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots and data analytics, the trade chief said that new skillsets are required. Many things are happening and bound to change. Some systems are now AI-enabled, making the jobs of people easier. But people are also the ones developing and maintaining the AI systems.

Upon consultation with AI industry experts, Dado Banatao and George Yang of AI-Pros, the DTI Secretary noted that the use of AI in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is a win-win for both the industry and Filipino workforce. While AI is cost-effective for completing multiple tasks faster and with less error, it will also allow the human workforce to increase their competitiveness in performing tasks ranging from simple to complex within the same timeframe, which are high-value and high-paying tasks.

"By combining the sizeable Filipino workforce possessing the appropriate skills and talents with AI-powered technologies, the Philippines will be poised to be the AI-driven BPO capital of the world," said Sec. Lopez.

“We are now seeing people in the BPO industry operating AI-enabled systems, where previously rejected job seekers in BPOs are now finding themselves with more job opportunities to do simpler tasks in operating AI-enabled systems. We’ve seen BPO operations in Manila where AI and chatbots are the first line of contact of clients. However, these were managed by a human operator, who is also now capable of managing two or three simultaneous calls attended by the AI-enabled system,” shared the trade chief.

According to George Yang, AI also widens the reach of opportunities to the underprivileged, citing that even high school graduates, market workers, or street vendors can be trained to operate AI-enabled systems. The most vital requirement is just the ability to understand and speak English, which Filipinos are very good at.

"Such is an example where technology can even make the opportunities more inclusive.  Yes, there are challenges but there are more opportunities. Our education and training systems, including TESDA, are now offering training programs to enable our workforce to catch up on the new job trends and prepare them for the ever-changing technology. But we're confident that we can achieve this goal of creating job and employment opportunities that are more inclusive even in the future,” Sec. Lopez concluded.