Philippines’ migrant workers retrain for life back home

MANILA: The Philippine government is trying to retrain hundreds of thousands of Filipino workers who are returning jobless from overseas as the pandemic batters economies around the globe.

Already struggling with unemployment that spiked to record levels when the pandemic hit, the South-East Asian nation is bracing for nearly 300,000 overseas Filipino workers – like caretakers, maids and seamen – to return home this year.

The government is offering free programmes to reskill these workers for jobs such as call-center agents, teachers and contact tracers.