50,000 Filipino workers needed in Guam

As TESDA, PASEI ink Guam deal

THE Technical Education and Skills Development Authority yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. for the training and development of construction workers to Guam.

TESDA Director General Augusto Syjuco and Victor ER Fernandez, PASEI president, were the signatories for the MOA.

Syjuco said the MOA came about after the Guam Contractors Association has announced that construction companies there would need around 50,000 workers over 3-5 years’ time, in anticipation of the construction boom to happen in Guam beginning 2009.

He added the need for construction workers is due to the U.S. military transfer plan from Okinawa, Japan, where there will be around 8,000 marines and 10,000 dependents who will be moving out from Okinawa to Guam.

The GCA can only meet approximately 10 percent to 12 percent of the impending labor force and that the Guam Economic Development and Commerce Authority had announced that it prefers Filipino workers for the anticipated construction boom. Lee Ann P. Ducusin - Journal Online