Crews from the Philippines arrive with their own foremen — that is one reason they are productive from week one. Here is how we compose a project crew, who supervises it, and how manpower ramps up in phases against the programme.
We build the crew in the ratio of your manning schedule and add the supervisory layer: a trade foreman per ten to fifteen workers, a general foreman for the crew, and — where you want them — site engineers with PRC civil-engineering licences, quantity surveyors, planners, document controllers and HSE officers, all trained in English and most with a decade of Gulf projects. Foremen are tested on programme reading, crew allocation and a toolbox talk delivered in English; engineers and QS on a take-off and a setting-out exercise.
Mobilisation follows the programme: the structural crew first, piping or masonry next, MEP and finishing last, each wave recruited and tested in Makati against its own start date, with the employer's MWO accreditation and job order reused wave after wave. Candidates are briefed on the roster, the site, the climate and the accommodation before they interview, so the crew you see has already self-selected.
Which trades can come depends on the country, not on demand, and we say so before quoting. Gulf: employer sponsorship — skilled trades at MoHRE level 4–5, foremen 3–4, helpers where the quota allows. Australia: trades on the Core Skills Occupation List with a TRA skills assessment for Philippine passports; concreters, plant operators and labourers only where a regional DAMA lists them. Germany: the experience route for diploma holders at Bau-Tarif, apprentices under § 16a — no visa for unskilled labour. Austria: roofers, carpenters, concrete workers, construction fitters and (regionally) bricklayers and tilers on the 2026 shortage lists. Belgium: the regional medium-skilled lists (Flanders 2026: 21 occupations, low-skilled excluded). Netherlands: skilled routes only.
Site management in Germany needs German B1 in practice; engineers can enter Germany on the Blue Card and Austria on the Rot-Weiß-Rot card for technicians and engineers on the 2026 list.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office for the destination, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly.
Everything here is subject to the permit, qualification and licensing requirements of the destination country.
That is the Gulf norm — English on site, and foremen used to South Asian and Arab crews.
Four to eight weeks after the first in the Gulf, reusing the file; in Europe the permit timing per worker applies.
NEBOSH/IOSH HSE officers and CSWIP/AWS inspectors are in the candidate base; see also the oil & gas QA/QC & HSE page.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.