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South Korea may hire more workers – POEA


South Korea may hire more workers in the manufacturing industry than as originally planned with the requisite Korean Language Test (KLT) set to be held anytime soon, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) announced recently. According to POEA administrator Jennifer Manalili, instead of the previously announced 3,000, as much as 5,000 applicants will now have the chance to be listed in the Roster of Jobseekers in the county. The applicants, however, will have to score 80 points or higher in KLT as required by the country’s Employment Permit System (EPS). A medical examination will also be required. “Being in the roster of pre-qualified applicants, however, is not a guarantee for employment as employers would have specific job requirements in hiring their workers," Manalili said. Registration requirements The POEA has set the registration period for the test on April 6-8, to be conducted by the POEA in designated areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the details of which are yet to be published. It is open to applicants who are in active status in the POEA online manpower registry as of March 31 this year. In addition, applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement to take the KLT, and pay a test fee of US$17 (about P810). Applicants must be no more that 38 years old, have at least one year work experience, and present valid documents such as passport. Korea’s Human Resource Development Service (HRDS), the new test agency accredited by the Korean government to administer the examination, is expected to announce the official dates of examination on March 29. Workers with previous record of illegal stay in Korea will be disqualified as they are not eligible for E9 visa category, or the non-professional employment visa, according to Korean rules, Manalili said. Higher passing rate expected Manalili expressed hopes that the passing rate of Filipino applicants will now be better than the May 2007 test result, when the examination was last held, as Korea has provided a KLT reviewer for the language test and applicants now have more time to review. The EPS-KLS reviewer can be accessed here, which is also posted at the POEA Web site. For this year, the HRDS has adopted a new qualifying system that allows only those who scored at least 80 points out of 50 test items on reading and listening examination, and who are in the top 5,000, to be included in the roster. The previous passing score was 120 points. Guidelines and other details about the EPS-KLT registration are available at the website of the POEA, the sole agency entrusted by the Korean Ministry of Labor to implement the program. Over 21,000 Filipino workers have been deployed under the EPS since August 2004, according to the POEA. It added basic monthly wages for foreign EPS workers have also been adjusted from US$640 (about P29,120) to US$940 (about P42,770) in current job offers. – KBK, GMANews.TV

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