Jun 3, 2026

70% of Returning OFWs Consider Going Back Overseas. Here Is What ETEEAP Can Do About It

A new survey from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration or OWWA puts a striking number on the table: close to 70 percent of repatriated Filipino workers still want to find jobs abroad, even after returning home. For the government, that figure is a challenge. For OFWs themselves, it tells a familiar story about why staying in the Philippines often does not feel like a realistic option.

But buried inside the very same announcement is a program that could help change that math. OWWA specifically mentioned the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) as one of its key reintegration tools. For OFWs who have spent years building real skills abroad, this program offers something most reintegration efforts do not: a concrete credential that reflects the work they have already done.

Here is what the survey found, why the numbers look the way they do, and how ETEEAP fits into the bigger picture.

OWWA Administrator Patricia Yvonne Caunan shared the survey results in late May 2026. The survey covered nearly 90 percent of the 10,129 Filipinos repatriated by the Department of Migrant Workers and OWWA as of May 24, 2026. Of that total, 7,988 were OFWs, with the rest made up of dependents and tourists or overseas Filipinos.

The key finding: close to 70 percent of those surveyed said they still plan to look for work abroad. Only around 30 percent said they intend to work locally or start a business in the Philippines.

That ratio is worth sitting with for a moment. These are workers who have just gone through the process of being repatriated. They have access to OWWA’s reintegration services. And still, the majority of them are looking outward again.

The reasons for this are not hard to understand once you look at the economic reality these workers face when they come home.

Why OFWs Still Look Overseas

For most OFWs, going abroad was never just a lifestyle choice. It was a financial decision, and often the most rational one available to them at the time.

Jobs abroad regularly offer wages that are difficult to match locally, especially for workers in sectors like construction, household services, manufacturing, and healthcare support. When a worker returns home after years of earning in a foreign currency, the local wage landscape can feel like a step backward rather than a step forward.

Add to that the financial obligations many OFWs carry when they return: mortgages, children’s tuition, medical bills for aging parents, and debts that were sometimes taken on to fund the original deployment. These are not small pressures. They make the question of staying home a genuinely difficult one, even when a worker would prefer to be closer to family.

This is the core problem that reintegration programs have to address. Telling OFWs to stay in the Philippines is not enough. They need local options that can actually compete with what they earn abroad. And for many of them, the barrier is not skill. It is the absence of a credential.

The Gap That Keeps Reintegration From Working

Years of overseas experience often do not translate cleanly into the Philippine job market without formal documentation. A worker who spent a decade managing a hospitality team in Qatar, supervising a construction site in Saudi Arabia, or coordinating logistics in Singapore has accumulated real professional knowledge. But without a college degree to attach that experience to, many employers and government salary scales simply will not recognize it at the level it deserves.

This credential gap is one of the most underappreciated barriers in OFW reintegration. Workers come home qualified by experience but not by paper. They find themselves competing for roles that require degrees they never had the opportunity to finish. The result is either underemployment or a return trip abroad.

ETEEAP was built to solve exactly this problem.

Where ETEEAP Fits In

The ETEEAP is a government-backed program that assesses the knowledge, skills, and competencies a person has gained through their work and life experience, and converts that into recognized academic credit toward a college degree.

Under the program, CHED-deputized colleges and universities evaluate an applicant’s professional background through portfolio review, written examinations, skills demonstrations, and panel interviews. What the assessors are looking for is not how many classroom hours you have logged. They are measuring what you actually know and can do in your field.

If your work experience covers most of the competencies required by a degree program, only the gaps need to be filled through additional coursework. The result is a CHED-recognized bachelor’s degree that carries the same weight in employment, civil service eligibility, and professional licensure examinations as any degree earned through four years of traditional study.

For an OFW who has spent five or more years working in a field related to a specific degree program, ETEEAP is a direct path from experience to credential. It does not ask you to start over. It asks the educational system to start from where you already are.

The program was permanently institutionalized under Republic Act No. 12124, the ETEEAP Act signed in March 2025, which means it now has dedicated government funding and a formal legal foundation that was not in place under the earlier executive order.

The OWWA and CHED Partnership

OWWA’s mention of ETEEAP in its reintegration announcement was not casual. The agency and CHED have already signed a formal memorandum of agreement to launch the Lifelong Learning Education Assistance Program for OFWs, known as LEAP-OFWs. This partnership funds eligible workers who want to earn a degree through ETEEAP.

A pilot batch of 100 participants has been defined: 50 slots for OFWs still deployed abroad and 50 slots for returning workers already in the Philippines. The 50 slots for active OFWs are structured to allow online participation, meaning workers do not have to leave their posts abroad in order to complete the program.

You can read more about the OWWA-CHED agreement and what it covers in this detailed breakdown of the LEAP-OFWs program.

CHED has also launched the ENROLL OFWs portal at eteeap.ched.gov.ph, a centralized online registration system where OFWs can enter the ETEEAP process, get matched with a deputized school, and begin their degree journey from anywhere in the world. A full guide to that portal is available on our CHED ENROLL OFWs article.

Basic Qualifications for ETEEAP

Not every returning OFW will automatically qualify for ETEEAP, but many will. The minimum requirements under Republic Act No. 12124 are:

You must be a Filipino citizen, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad.
You must be at least 23 years old at the time of application.
You must have completed a secondary school program. A high school diploma is the standard. A passing result on the Philippine Educational Placement Test or an Alternative Learning System Accreditation and Equivalency Assessment that qualifies you for college entry is also accepted.
You must have at least five aggregate years of work experience in an industry related to the degree program you are applying for. This does not have to be five continuous years with one employer, and experience earned abroad counts.
You must be able to demonstrate proficiency in your chosen field through a certificate from a government regulatory body, from an employer, from a licensed practitioner, or through a TESDA National Certificate or Certificate of Competency.

The five-year work experience requirement is the most important factor for OFWs. The experience must be genuinely connected to the degree being sought. An OFW with years in hospitality management, healthcare support, construction supervision, maritime operations, or any other skilled field will likely find a matching degree program through one of the CHED-deputized schools in the country.

Use the ETEEAP eligibility checker to get a quick read on whether your background meets the basic requirements before you contact a school.

What to Do Right Now

If you are a returning OFW or a worker still abroad who has been thinking about this, the current moment is a good time to start moving. OWWA’s reintegration services and the CHED ETEEAP portal are expanding specifically to reach workers in your situation.

Here are practical steps you can take today:

Check your eligibility first. Use the ETEEAP Hub eligibility page to see whether your age, educational background, and work experience meet the minimum requirements. It takes only a few minutes and saves you from preparing documents prematurely.

Identify the right degree program. Your work experience needs to match the field of the degree you pursue. Browse the available programs to find a degree that genuinely reflects what you have been doing professionally.

Find a deputized school. Only schools authorized by CHED can award ETEEAP degrees. The accredited schools directory lists all authorized institutions, including those that support online and flexible learning for OFWs still abroad.

Start gathering your documents. Certificates of employment, proof of training, performance evaluations, and other records from your years abroad are the foundation of your ETEEAP application. Collecting them from former overseas employers takes time, so starting early gives you a real advantage.

Read the full ETEEAP guide. The ETEEAP Hub resource page walks you through how the program works, what the assessment stages look like, and how to prepare a strong application portfolio.

You can also find answers to the most common questions about the process on our FAQ page.

The OWWA survey number, 70 percent still looking abroad, is not a failure of reintegration policy alone. It is a signal that the options available at home still feel inadequate for many workers who have built real careers overseas. Closing that gap requires more than training programs and loan funds. It requires a way for those workers to carry their experience into the credential system.

That is what ETEEAP offers. If you or someone you know has the work history to qualify, the program is worth a serious look. Your years abroad have already educated you. The question is whether that education will finally be recognized.

Check if you qualify for ETEEAP today.