Filipinos who spent years working overseas are being handed a route back into the local workforce, and a group of them marked that transition on August 12, 2026, when they received training certificates at a TESDA ceremony in partnership with the Asian Aesthetics & Permanent Make Up Training Center.
The graduation caps a course meant to move returning workers into fresh careers or small enterprises without them shouldering the cost. Participants pay nothing for the National Certificate courses, which target skills currently in demand, and they receive a financial allowance while under instruction. Beyond the classroom, the package extends into business guidance, walking would-be entrepreneurs through planning and start-up, along with access to grants and other reintegration support.
The effort answers a standing instruction from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to secure decent opportunities for OFWs once they come home. It sits within a larger government framework, the Kaalaman Tungo sa Kabuhayan or K2K initiative, which the Department of Migrant Workers expanded on July 20 through a joint agreement with the Department of Labor and Employment, TESDA, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. That whole-of-government arrangement pools agency resources so returning workers can move from competency assessment into training, job placement, and livelihood assistance under a single coordinated pathway.
TESDA’s involvement in reintegration predates the DMW itself. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency ran the OFW Reintegration through Skills and Entrepreneurship program, delivering online courses to workers displaced by the health crisis. More recently, repatriations from conflict zones in the Middle East pushed the agency to open thousands of scholarship slots for affected workers, with certificates of grant commitment endorsed to the DMW for distribution.
Leaders from both agencies addressed the graduates. Among them were TESDA Deputy Director General for Special Concerns Felizardo R. Colambo, TESDA NCR Regional Director Angelina M. Carreon, DMW-NCR Regional Director Atty. Falcony V. Millar, NRCO-DMW Chief Labor and Employment Officer Dennis N. Cababato, and PASMAK District Director Maria Gracia P. Dela Rama.
The stated aim runs against a persistent pressure the government has flagged elsewhere in the program: keeping skilled Filipinos from feeling forced to leave again. Officials have framed the reintegration strategy as a way to lower re-migration by giving returning workers the means to rebuild economic stability at home rather than seeking it abroad once more.
