Raising OFW Career Standards in the Middle East

I felt a sense of relief in my OFW life after reading the news today from Gulfnews. Here in UAE, it's not unknown to everyone that there are some OFW's who are educated with university degrees and are not employed in their field. Most often than not they are paid less despite having excellent professional skills.

Philippine embassy in UAE is giving their utmost effort to support this cause. A symposium held in Abu Dhabi last Saturday spearheaded by our Ambassor to UAE herself, Grace Relucio Princesa opened up the way to uplift entrepreneural spirit of Filipinos here in the Middleast.



A quite number of runaway maids in the shelter were educated and most of them have university degrees. Because of low expectations and lack of initiative to demonstrate their skills, these women ended up in low paid jobs according to Marietta Morada, a statistician who worked in a semi-government organization in Dubai. She was the speaker on "The UAE economy and prospects for the Filipino entrepreneur," organised by the University of Philippines Alumni Association in the UAE at the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

This is a good way to climb up the ladder in each OFW career. If we just know how to market our skills then it would be an added advantage to earn best in each field of expertise.

A good note to learn was that a Filipina having learned how to do this was able to raise her salary from Dh3000 to Dh10000 a month. With this in mind, I believe that the effort done was a good starting point in raising awareness for all OFW's here in UAE as well as anywhere in the world. It's good to know our capabilities. We should work on that expertise and know how to market one's career properly. Better yet, get advice from experts or friends who knew best to assess one's job value in the market. In this way, we will all have the benefit of getting paid in the right way with the right job.