WHY WE PREFER FILIPINO WORKERS

Visa Workforce specialises in recruitment of workers from the Philippines, on sub class 457 visas. However we are not necessarily limited to recruitment from the Philippines (nor indeed to 457 visas), but we tend to stick to what we know best.

In recent years, the government of the Philippines has consciously shifted emphasis from “exporting” unskilled workers such as domestic helpers, factory workers and entertainers, to "professional and skilled labour" especially to destinations like UK, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Filipinos can be extremely proud of their contribution to the building of exotic places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the petro chemical industries in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and infrastructure projects around the world from Africa to Korea. Filipinos are renowned worldwide for their maritime workers, and increasingly, trained nurses and other medical professionals are finding work in the USA, Canada and New Zealand. Those are good reasons why Visa Workforce is Philippines focused.

Its not only that, its because we know the Philippines – the Principal of Visa Workforce worked as a commercial manager in the Philippines on a mining/construction project funded by an Australian listed company, before leaving to form Visa Workforce in 2006. We have interviewed thousands of Filipinos and trade tested many hundreds of applicants.

We are very familiar with the skills available in the Philippines and the credentials applicants have acquired, and we can assess whether their experiences abroad have actually added value in their development and whether their work skills are transferable to Australian workplaces.

CV’s can be oustanding and documents can be forged. We can discern which work places and work backgrounds are good and which are bad. Visa Workforce/First Magellan have established track records in placing a range of skilled workers into Australia and that unblemished record clearly demonstrates that we know what we are doing. Our failure rate is around 2%.

Working abroad is what Filipinos do. Daily, more than 3,000 Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW’s) depart for work overseas, including those on rotation. Savings remitted back to the Philippines by OFW’s exceeds US$16 billion annually. The majority of our candidates already have overseas work experience in some cases exceeding 15 years, in diverse workplaces across the globe.

There is a substantial network of universities and technical colleges across the Philippines, churning out an endless stream of auto mechanics and machinists through to civil engineers and medicos. Although in most cases there are no formal "apprenticeships" in trades, (few countries have the formal apprenticeship system that Australia has), the vast training effort in the Philippines is not only providing trained skilled workers for domestic employment, but it is highly geared up for the overseas deployment industry.

The Philippines is essentially an English speaking country albeit it is their second language. Education is delivered in English, many newspapers and ALL street signage is in English.

Our final reason for preferring Filipinos is that, apart from being skilled, and adaptable, they fit into our workplaces and into our communities extremely well, and are very accustomed to working away. Nearly 1 in 10 Filipino families have a member working abroad. Sure there is going to be the odd failure, but by using a knowledgeable and authoritative recruitment agent, you can considerably "de-risk" overseas recruitment.