Everyone of us, at least at one point in our lives, has been through an interview. A pre-school kid playfully engages in an informal “talk” with her would-be principal; a gawky adolescent gathers her thoughts on what she feels about entering Grade 11; a confused teenager explains why she is taking the course that she is enrolled in; or a new grad defends why she is qualified for her first job. It’s no doubt that the face-to-face interview is one of the best ways of assessing

I have interviewed thousands of nurses and each time, the question that always come to mind is, "is this applicant qualified?". Interviewing is harder than it looks, but it’s worthwhile. As an interviewer, my primary job is to assess candidates. More important in my profession, though, is convincing the potential ones to stay with the employer. I know the expectations and dreams of applicants. Many come with impressive curriculum vitae; a handful have graduated with Latin hon

Abba has won another award from the POEA, this time it is the "Award of Excellence". In three previous instances, Abba has been given the "Top Performer Award", in 2002, 2005, and 2009. The award is given for exemplary performance in the overseas employment program. The new award will be given to Abba in formal ceremonies on December 12. POEA advised Abba of this development in its letter of November 14, 2013. #POEA #POEAAwardofExcellence #OverseasFilipinoWorkers

The government of Saudi Arabia, thru its Cabinet, approved a set of regulations that will further promote human rights of migrant workers and penalize human trafficking. The prominent features of the regulations, recommended by the Shoura Council, include penalties against coercion, threats, misuse of position or influence, taking advantage of the workers’ weakness, coercive service, practices similar to slavery. A committee has been formed to monitor known victims of human t

Starting November 08, 2010, all private recruitment agencies in the Philippines will have to buy insurance for all the workers they deploy to any country in the world. The insurance requirement is part of the Omnibus Rules Implementing Republic Act 8042 as amended by R.A. 10022, which mandates insurance protection for workers deployed by agencies. Those deployed by the government, workers rehired by their previous employers, and vacationing workers are not covered by the insu

Abba comes out with an advertisement (click) on the June 27 issue of the Sunday Bulletin showing at least 90 vacancies from among its 20 current clients. The advertisement calls for various applicants, in Nursing, Allied Medical and Non - Medical positions. Abba prescreens all its applicants before referring them to clients. The vacancies are for Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar and Oman. #FilipinoNurses #OverseasFilipinoWorkers

Membership to Pag- Ibig Fund has become mandatory for Overseas Filipino Workers. The Fund, which offers housing loans to its members, was previously required only of Philippine based workers, and optional to OFW's. Starting July 1, the POEA will only issue Overseas Employment Certificates (OEC's) to those who have paid P600, or the equivalent of the first 6 - months membership fee for Pag - Ibig. After that, the OFW is expected to make monthly payments of P100. Aside for the

The 3 top destinations for Filipino workers in 2009 were Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, and Hong Kong. Figures from the POEA show that for the year, 1, 092, 162 were deployed by the Philippines to various destinations. Of the total 291, 419 workers or 26.7% went to Saudi Arabia. U.A.E, which has consistently been #2 for many years, is still the 2nd most favored destination. There were 196, 815 new hires/re hires for the country. Other popular destination, aside from Saudi and UAE were

Figures from the country’s Central Bank showed that overseas Filipino workers from the United States are still the top remitters in the year 2009. That has been the case for many years. But OFW’s from Canada have remitted more dollars to their families in the Philippines last year than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia. A total of US$17.348 Billion were remitted by OFW’s all over the world; those from the U.S. remitted US$7.323 Billion. Aside from Canada and Saudi Arabia ch

Saudi Arabia has new minimum age requirements for incoming foreign workers. The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Philippines annouced that effective immediately, the age requirements for these occupation are as follows: Domestic helper ..................................................... 21 years Nurse and Flight Attendant .................................... 21 years Dressmaker ........................................................... 30 years Salesman for Textile and Ladie

Abba Personnel Services received its Top Performer Award in ceremonies at the PICC Convention Hall last April 29. It is the 3rd consecutive award for Abba: it previously received the same award in 2002, and 2005. For this decade, the POEA has given out the Award three times. There were 8 other receipients of the 2010 awards (for complete listing of the agency-awardees, (please click here.) Nestor Flores, President of Abba, delivered the Response on behalf of all the land-base

Saudi Arabia is still the top destination for Filipino workers in 2008. There were 275, 933 workers both new hires and rehires, who were deployed to the Kingdom last year. Saudi Arabia is followed by UAE, which also registered the highest incerease in 2008, compared with the previous year. Total deployments for 2008 was 974, 399, up 20.1% from 2007. #OverseasFilipinoWorkers #ofw #SaudiArabia