A warning to graduates

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Thousands of students are graduating from various college courses in the Philippines this month, and all of them will be on the look-out for possible employment, as soon as they receive the documents attesting to their completion of their chosen courses.

Many of the new graduates will be hoping for a chance to work, if possible, abroad, preferably in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada, which are English-speaking countries, and therefore easier for them to adapt to.

But that is also why swindlers and bogus employers or agents are now starting their rackets that will victimize the new jobseeker with attractive offers of work in such countries. This, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has uncovered and is trying to pre-empt, by issuing warnings both to the new graduates and their parents. The POEA is asking them to ignore e-mail offers supposedly from international companies, offering employment, telling the prospective “employee” that he or she has been selected for a particular job.

The POEA says the offers are for work in hospitals and caregiving establishments and that the potential employee has to pay only a minimal amount for medical examinations and job briefing, as all other expenses will be paid by the employer.

Already, the POEA has checked out some of those offerors and they have been found using the names of legitimate companies, which, when verified have been shown to have nothing to do with the offerors.

The warning from the POEA is very timely, because, very soon, the country will be flooded with new and eager college graduates chafing to go to work immediately. With this warning, however, they should be very careful about responding to such invitations and would do very well to first check out with the POEA, or any other government agency involved, to ascertain whether they are dealing with a genuine company, or with just a group of highly imaginative swindlers.*