Skills shortages can restrict growth long before a lack of customers does. Businesses may have the contracts, equipment and demand needed to expand, but without enough experienced people to carry out the work, opportunities can quickly become difficult to fulfil.
For UK employers struggling to recruit experienced technical and skilled workers domestically, recruiting from the Philippines can provide access to a much wider international talent pool.
The Philippines has a large skilled workforce with experience across engineering, manufacturing, automotive, transport, shipbuilding, construction and specialist technical industries. Many Filipino workers also have experience working internationally, making the country an established source of skilled labour for employers around the world.
However, recruiting from the Philippines requires businesses to comply with regulations in both countries. UK employers must meet Home Office sponsorship and visa requirements, while recruitment and deployment from the Philippines is regulated through the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and Migrant Workers Office (MWO).
Aureol Global Connections helps businesses navigate this process while identifying, assessing and recruiting skilled workers directly from the Philippines.
Recruiting internationally should not simply be about generating more applications for a vacancy. The purpose is to access skills and experience that an employer is struggling to find within its existing recruitment market.
The Philippines has developed a significant technical and vocational workforce across sectors where UK employers continue to experience recruitment challenges.
Depending on current UK visa eligibility, employers may be able to recruit Filipino workers for roles including:
Importantly, not every skilled occupation is automatically eligible for sponsorship in the UK. Visa eligibility should therefore be considered at the beginning of an international recruitment project rather than after candidates have already been selected.
Yes. UK businesses can recruit Filipino nationals where the company, vacancy and candidate meet the relevant UK immigration requirements.
In most circumstances, an employee recruited directly from the Philippines will require sponsorship under an appropriate UK work visa route.
For skilled permanent or long term employment, this will commonly mean the Skilled Worker visa.
The employer will usually need to:
The candidate can then apply for the appropriate UK visa before travelling to take up employment.
Before a UK employer can normally sponsor a worker from the Philippines, the business must hold a Home Office sponsor licence covering the appropriate immigration route.
A sponsor licence gives an employer permission to sponsor overseas nationals for eligible employment in the UK.
The Home Office requires sponsor licence holders to demonstrate that they are genuine organisations operating lawfully within the UK.
Employers must also have appropriate systems for managing sponsored employees and monitoring their immigration status.
Businesses applying for a sponsor licence will need to nominate personnel responsible for managing sponsorship, provide relevant supporting documentation and demonstrate that appropriate HR processes are in place.
Once approved, an employer receives an A-rated sponsor licence and can begin assigning Certificates of Sponsorship for eligible vacancies.
Holding a sponsor licence also creates ongoing responsibilities. Employers are expected to maintain accurate records, conduct appropriate right-to-work checks, monitor sponsored employees and report certain changes or events to UK Visas and Immigration.
Failure to comply with these responsibilities can result in the licence being downgraded, suspended or withdrawn.
The Skilled Worker visa is one of the principal routes through which UK employers recruit workers from outside the UK.
To qualify, the candidate must normally have an eligible job offer from a Home Office-approved sponsor and receive a Certificate of Sponsorship for the position.
The position itself must also meet the required occupation and salary rules.
For most new Skilled Worker applications, the salary must currently be at least £41,700 per year or the specified going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher. Different thresholds can apply in particular circumstances, including certain occupations on the Immigration Salary List, qualifying new entrants and applicants with relevant PhD qualifications.
This means employers should not assess eligibility based on salary alone. Every sponsored role must be assigned an appropriate SOC occupation code, with its own eligibility and going-rate requirements.
UK immigration rules changed significantly in July 2025.
For most new Skilled Worker applications, an occupation must now normally be skilled to RQF Level 6 or above, broadly equivalent to graduate-level occupations. However, there are important exceptions.
Certain occupations below RQF Level 6 can currently qualify where they appear on either the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List. This is particularly relevant for employers recruiting technical workers from the Philippines.
As of August 2026, the UK Temporary Shortage List contains a range of technical occupations relevant to engineering, manufacturing, automotive and industrial employers.
These currently include occupations such as:
These occupations are specifically included within the current Temporary Shortage List despite being below the normal RQF Level 6 Skilled Worker threshold.
Current rules should always be checked before recruitment begins. The Temporary Shortage List is designed to respond to changing labour-market requirements and individual occupations can be added, removed or subject to additional conditions.
For businesses considering recruiting Filipino workers, establishing the correct occupation code and visa eligibility at the beginning of the project can prevent significant problems later.
The standard Skilled Worker salary threshold is currently £41,700 per year, although the worker must also receive at least the applicable going rate for their occupation where that is higher.
There are circumstances where a lower general threshold can apply.
For example, current Skilled Worker rules provide different salary options for certain:
An occupation appearing on a shortage list does not automatically mean that any salary can be offered. The specific SOC code, going rate, working hours and applicable immigration rules must still be considered.
For employers, this makes salary assessment one of the most important early stages of any overseas recruitment campaign.
The UK also increased the English language requirement for new Skilled Worker applicants on 8 January 2026.
New applicants must now normally demonstrate English ability at B2 level under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, covering reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Previously, the requirement for many Skilled Worker applicants was B1.
A candidate may be able to satisfy the requirement through an approved Secure English Language Test or through an eligible academic qualification taught in English, subject to the applicable Home Office requirements.
This should be assessed during candidate selection rather than left until the end of the recruitment process.
Once a suitable Filipino worker has been selected, the sponsoring employer will normally need to assign them a Certificate of Sponsorship, commonly known as a CoS.
Despite its name, the Certificate of Sponsorship is an electronic record rather than a physical certificate.
It contains information about the employer, job, salary and proposed employment. The worker uses the unique Certificate of Sponsorship reference when making their Skilled Worker visa application.
The information recorded on the Certificate of Sponsorship must accurately reflect the position being offered.
The occupation code is particularly important. Employers cannot simply select another occupation code because it has more favourable salary or visa requirements. UKVI can examine whether the chosen SOC code genuinely represents the work the employee will undertake.
Aureol Global Connections recruits candidates directly from the Philippines, giving employers access to skilled workers rather than restricting searches to candidates already living within the UK.
There is, however, an important distinction between recruiting candidates directly in the Philippines and the term “direct hire” within Philippine overseas employment regulation.
The Philippines has its own regulatory framework governing the overseas employment of Filipino nationals. Recruiting a worker directly therefore does not remove the need to satisfy the applicable Philippine recruitment, verification and deployment requirements.
These requirements are overseen by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and its overseas Migrant Workers Offices.
For UK employers, this creates two connected processes: obtaining the appropriate UK sponsorship and immigration permissions, while also ensuring the worker can be legally deployed from the Philippines.
Employers researching recruitment from the Philippines will frequently encounter references to POEA, particularly when searching for terms such as:
POEA stands for the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.
Historically, POEA was the government agency responsible for regulating overseas recruitment and employment of Filipino workers.
These functions are now administered through the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
For employers, the important point is that DMW is the current terminology, although POEA remains widely used online and appears throughout historic Philippine overseas employment rules and documentation.
The DMW regulates overseas recruitment, accredits foreign employers or principals where required, oversees recruitment agencies and protects the employment rights of Filipino workers deployed overseas.
Employers who have previously recruited Filipino workers may also recognise the term POLO, meaning Philippine Overseas Labor Office.
POLO is the former name.
The current organisation is the Migrant Workers Office, or MWO.
MWOs operate overseas as part of the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers and perform functions relating to Filipino workers employed within their jurisdiction.
For workers being recruited into the United Kingdom, the relevant office is MWO London, based at the Philippine Embassy in London. MWO London currently covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as several other jurisdictions.
Employers may therefore still encounter phrases such as “POLO verification” when researching the process, but MWO verification is the current terminology.
The Philippine overseas employment system is intended to ensure that Filipino nationals travelling abroad for work are being recruited into genuine employment with appropriate terms and protections.
Depending on the recruitment structure, documentation can therefore require verification through MWO and accreditation within the Philippine DMW system.
Historically, the Philippine overseas employment rules have required documentation relating to foreign employer accreditation to be verified by the relevant overseas labour office.
Requirements can include recruitment agreements, job orders, details of the positions required, salaries, commercial registration information and other supporting employer documentation.
Current DMW guidance continues to provide for employer or principal accreditation through the relevant Migrant Workers Office, with the DMW central office also able to become involved in specified circumstances.
For a UK employer, this means recruitment from the Philippines should be approached as a structured international employment process rather than simply advertising a vacancy overseas and booking a flight for the successful candidate.
The Philippines has a highly regulated system for overseas employment.
Its purpose is to protect Filipino workers from illegal recruitment, exploitation, inappropriate employment conditions and fraudulent overseas job offers.
Employers recruiting Filipino nationals may therefore encounter requirements concerning:
The precise requirements depend on the structure of the recruitment programme and should be established before deployment.
For employers unfamiliar with Philippine recruitment, coordinating the UK and Philippine processes can appear complicated. Working with an experienced international recruitment organisation helps businesses understand what is required at each stage while allowing internal teams to concentrate on their own operations.
One of the biggest challenges with any recruitment process is determining whether a candidate’s CV accurately reflects what they can actually do. This becomes even more important when recruiting internationally.
For technical occupations, practical skills testing can provide employers with much greater confidence before making an international hire.
Depending on the project and occupation, Aureol Global Connections can incorporate candidate assessment and practical skill testing into the recruitment process.
Rather than selecting somebody purely because their CV contains the correct keywords, employers can assess practical ability, technical competence and relevant experience before progressing candidates.
For roles such as welding, fabrication, automotive repair, engineering and other practical occupations, this can significantly strengthen the selection process.
The Philippines has spent decades developing a workforce that operates both domestically and internationally.
Filipino professionals and tradespeople work across major industries throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.
For UK businesses, the attraction is not simply the size of the labour market. It is the opportunity to access candidates with technical qualifications, practical experience and skills that may be increasingly difficult to find through domestic recruitment alone.
International recruitment can also help employers build a more resilient workforce by reducing their dependence on a single labour market.
It should complement investment in local employees, apprenticeships and training rather than replace them.
Where a genuine skills shortage exists, recruiting skilled Filipino workers can provide businesses with another way to secure the experience they need to grow.
International recruitment involves considerably more than finding CVs.
Employers need to establish whether the occupation can be sponsored, identify the correct SOC code, assess salary eligibility, select suitable candidates and manage the practical requirements involved in bringing those workers to the UK.
Recruitment from the Philippines also introduces a second regulatory framework through DMW and MWO.
Aureol Global Connections helps bring these different elements together.
We recruit skilled candidates directly from the Philippines and work with businesses to create international recruitment programmes designed around genuine workforce requirements.
Our international recruitment experience covers sectors including:
Whether an employer requires a small number of difficult-to-find specialists or wants to develop a larger international recruitment programme, the starting point should always be the same: identify the skills required, establish immigration eligibility and recruit people capable of performing the job.
Yes. UK businesses can recruit Filipino nationals where the employer holds the necessary sponsorship permission and the vacancy and candidate satisfy the relevant UK immigration requirements. Philippine overseas employment requirements must also be completed before the worker is deployed.
Usually, yes. A UK employer normally needs an appropriate Home Office sponsor licence before it can sponsor a worker recruited from the Philippines under the Skilled Worker route.
For most new Skilled Worker applications, the standard minimum is currently £41,700 per year or the going rate for the occupation, whichever is higher.
Lower thresholds can apply in specific circumstances.
Potentially. Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians currently appear on the UK Temporary Shortage List, meaning qualifying positions can currently be eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship despite being below the normal RQF Level 6 threshold.
Salary and other visa requirements still apply.
Potentially. Welding trades are currently included on the Temporary Shortage List, alongside pipe fitters, metal working production and maintenance fitters and several other technical occupations.
Yes, provided the specific engineering occupation, position and salary satisfy Skilled Worker visa requirements. Many professional engineering occupations are eligible at RQF Level 6 or above, while certain engineering technician occupations currently qualify through the Temporary Shortage List.
POEA stands for Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the former Philippine government body responsible for regulating overseas Filipino employment. Its functions now sit within the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
Yes. Philippine Overseas Labor Offices, commonly known as POLO offices, are now Migrant Workers Offices (MWO).
For UK recruitment, employers should therefore normally refer to MWO London rather than POLO London.
MWO London represents the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers within its jurisdiction and performs functions connected with the welfare, employment and deployment of Filipino workers. It also plays a role in verification and employer accreditation processes associated with overseas recruitment.
New Skilled Worker applicants must normally demonstrate English ability to at least B2 level in reading, writing, speaking and listening. The B2 requirement has applied to new applicants since 8 January 2026.
Yes, candidates can be sourced and recruited directly in the Philippines. However, employers should distinguish this from the Philippine regulatory term “direct hire”.
Recruiting candidates directly does not remove the requirement to comply with the applicable DMW and MWO overseas employment and deployment procedures.
A Certificate of Sponsorship is an electronic sponsorship record assigned by an approved UK employer to an overseas worker. The candidate uses the CoS reference when applying for their Skilled Worker visa.
Eligibility depends on the occupation’s SOC code, skill level, salary and current immigration rules. Some occupations qualify at RQF Level 6 or above, while certain medium-skilled positions can currently qualify through the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List.
Aureol Global Connections can help employers assess the recruitment requirement before an international candidate search begins.
If skills shortages are making it difficult to grow your workforce, international recruitment can open access to an entirely different talent market.
Aureol Global Connections helps UK businesses recruit skilled workers directly from the Philippines, from candidate sourcing and skill assessment through to navigating the requirements involved in international recruitment.
Whether you require experienced engineers, mechanics, welders, technicians or other specialist workers, speak to our team about the skills your business needs.
