AFTER a successful stint in Davao City, management-training school Integrative Learning International (ILI) Phils. Inc. ramped up its expansion of its new business segment aimed at recruiting health workers to Brisbane, Australia.

Incorporated with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1992, ILI Phils. partnered with Brisbane-based nanny-training organization Charlton Brown to recruit a targeted 150 Filipino workers this year.

“The 20 hours work [these student-workers would perform in Brisbane] fulfills a huge need in Australia, which is seeing an increase in the number of people needing quality aged care,” chief executive officer Kay Ganley said.

Ganley spoke during the launch of ILI’s two Metro Manila offices Friday.

In a briefing, ILI Phils. trainers said the need for health workers in caring for the aged in Brisbane would shoot up by 169 percent by 2011.

And there’s a lack of young qualified workers to meet this growing demand, Ganley added.

“The disposition of Filipinos is expected to upgrade the qualifications of the Australian work force, growing to a high through this program,” she said.

The ILI-Charlton Brown program is a three-year study-and-work system whereby Filipinos aim for certification to work in Brisbane and permanent residency in Australia.

For the first three months, the applicant would train for Age Care Certificate III under ILI in the Philippines. The training costs roughly P185,647 (AU$250 application fee and AU$4,600 tuition, at AU$1=P38.2777).

The whole 45-month study and work training would hit P0.316 million, roughly P500,000 lower than the spending a Manila-based six- to eight-year nursing course requires.

These ILI Phils. calculations were based on a nursing degree candidate studying for four years in a Manila-based school on a fixed P60,000 annual tuition. The company estimates the nursing student would spend an additional P250,000 for two to four years in training and processing for board license.

After three months, an ILI Phils. graduate flies to Brisbane to study for two years to get a Diploma of Community Services Management.

While studying, she can seek paid work for a maximum 20 hours a week.

ILI Phils. data show the average wage is AU$16.50 an hour.

The total payment to ILI Phils., however, neither covers travel expenses nor housing and living costs. Visa application also requires a P912,000 bank deposit (for unmarried applicants), or P1.55 million (for those married with two children).

According to ILI Phils. president Jorge L. Perez de Tagle, they opened their training school in Makati City and Quezon City “after getting good feedback” since pioneering the program in Davao in October last year.

He told the BusinessMirror they are targeting some 150 Filipino student-workers enrolling in their program this year. This would spell a P47.4-million revenue for the company that posted P9.5 million in revenues for 2006, according to its SEC documents.

ILI’s net income for its core business, which is to develop, promote and establish a training teaching technology, nearly doubled to P0.6 million that year from P341,544 in 2005.

The company, coowned by de Tagle’s sister Carolina Perez, increased its shareholder’s equity to P1.4 million two years ago.

Details of how the facilitated migration program works could be read from the company’s studyworkaustralia.com web site.

FOOD exporters asked the Philippine government to allow the duty-free importation of equipment and inputs used in agricultural production for 10 years as one way of ensuring food security and spurring local and foreign investments in the farm sector.

A LEGISLATOR urged his colleagues to speed up passage of the National Land Use Act included in the five-point action plan of Speaker Prospero Nograles to address the rising cost and limited supply of rice and achieve genuine food security.

DAVAO CITY—The construction of the P420-million Davao Port expansion project to accommodate larger export-bound ships, is expected to be finished ahead of schedule, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) here said.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) official disclosed that recent survey conducted by the DOLE’s Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) showed that managers, establishment, owners and top executives of private establishments in the country encountered recruitment difficulties as they searched for good experienced staff.

BUSINESSMAN William Gatchalian is partnering with a Macau-based company to put up a $500-million to $1-billion hotel and casino within the Bagong Nayong Pilipino Manila Bay Integrated City Project.

AFTER a successful stint in Davao City, management-training school Integrative Learning International (ILI) Phils. Inc. ramped up its expansion of its new business segment aimed at recruiting health workers to Brisbane, Australia.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza will meet with executives of some of the world’s giant mining companies to encourage more mining investments in the Philippines during the Asia Mining Congress to be held this week in Singapore.

AN innovator of Filipino food service whose servings are wrapped in banana leaves, Binalot Fiesta Foods Inc. vows not to raise the prices of its food offerings until the end of 2008, despite the issues of rice shortage and hoarding in the country, in an effort to empathize with its customers who have become budget-conscious in their spending.