Czech engineering lives on skilled metal trades it cannot hire locally, and the Philippines trains welders, machinists and electricians in volume for shipyards, export zones and the Gulf. This page covers the trades a Czech plant recruits most, how we test them to your procedure before they fly, and how the programme and the wage criterion shape a metal crew.
Welders, CNC machinists and setters, fitters, press-brake, laser and robot-cell operators, electricians and maintenance technicians fall in CZ-ISCO groups 7 and 8 and are recruited through the Qualified Employee Programme on Employee Cards, with the 30-day labour-market test and the wage criterion — at least CZK 27,328 gross a month in 2026, CZK 30,378 from 2027, and never below comparable employees, which for skilled metal trades in Czech plants means the plant's rate rather than the floor. Electricians work under the employer's authorised supervision under Czech electrical-safety rules and obtain the Czech qualification after arrival where the role requires independent work; welders are coded to EN ISO 9606-1 in the Czech Republic on the parameters tested in Makati.
A Czech employer hires a Filipino on an Employee Card (zaměstnanecká karta) — one permit for residence and work, issued by the Ministry of the Interior for the length of the employment up to two years and renewable — and reaches the Czech Embassy in Manila through the Government's Qualified Employee Programme (Program kvalifikovaný zaměstnanec), run by the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Industry, CzechInvest and the Agrarian Chamber as garants. The programme does not shorten the Ministry's statutory decision time of 60 days (90 in complex cases) and does not replace the 30-day labour-market test in the central vacancy register; what it does is guarantee the candidate an appointment within the Philippine annual quota of 10,300 places — set by Government Regulation No. 109/2026 Coll. for the Embassy in Manila (11,400 Employee Card applications a year, 10,300 of them for the programme), divided evenly into twelve months of 858 and assigned to named workers at a release at 10:00 on the published day; unused monthly places are not carried over. In 2025 the programme admitted 10,795 workers from thirteen countries, 4,791 of them from the Philippines — the largest group — and in July, August and September 2026 the monthly Philippine capacity was exhausted within hours of release. On 15 October 2026 Deputy Prime Minister Havlíček announced that the quotas for the Philippines and India will be raised; a figure of 12,000 a year from January 2027 circulated from the Brno engineering fair without ministerial confirmation, industry recommended at least 15,000, and until a government regulation is published the 10,300 quota applies. Wages must be at least CZK 27,328 gross a month in 2026 (1.22 × the minimum wage of CZK 22,400) — CZK 30,378 from 1 January 2027 — and not lower than comparable employees. The client is always the employer; Orienta Czech administers the process under power of attorney.
At Prime Search's Makati workshop welders weld coupons to your welding procedure specification in the positions your schedule requires — MAG plate, TIG root and MMA fill on pipe where you need it — bend or macro tested, with drawing reading and measuring; machinists edit a programme, set up and produce a first-off to drawing on the control you run; fitters assemble to drawing; electricians wire to a schematic and test; maintenance technicians fault-find on a rig. Your production manager watches live on site or online and interviews the same day. The Czech-language site shows how a test day runs, with video.
Filipino welders come from the shipyards of Subic and Cebu, the export-zone fabrication shops and the Gulf plants, with TESDA SMAW, GMAW and GTAW NC II and years on structural and pressure work; machinists from the export zones' precision shops with Machining NC II–III and two- or three-year technology programmes, used to Fanuc, Siemens and Heidenhain controls; electricians and maintenance technicians from plant-maintenance departments and building services. English is the working language; Czech safety vocabulary is briefed in Manila and the plants that want it arrange Czech courses in the first year.
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 at the Philippine Embassy in Prague — which sits in the same city as the Ministry of the Interior that decides the Employee Card, keeping contract verification and the immigration decision in one place — 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. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; Orienta Czech, the group's EU delivery entity licensed by the Czech Ministry of Labour, runs the recruitment and the immigration administration under your power of attorney and never employs or leases the workers.
Everything here is subject to the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals (326/1999 Coll.), the Employment Act (435/2004 Coll.), the Government's Qualified Employee Programme as published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of the Interior's practice in force and Philippine DMW rules.
Pre-tested to your WPS in Makati; EN ISO 9606-1 coding is completed in the Czech Republic on the same parameters.
Fanuc, Siemens and Heidenhain predominantly; we test on the control you run.
After obtaining the Czech electrical qualification; until then under the employer's authorised supervision, which most plants plan for the first months.
At least CZK 27,328 gross a month in 2026 (CZK 30,378 from 2027) and never below your comparable Czech welders — in practice the plant's rate.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.