CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 Philippine Overseas Labor Officers (POLO) and recruitment agencies on their respective obligations and liabilities. In 2001, the labor department through Department Order No. 11, recognized the growing alternative mode of recruiting Filipino household workers to Hong Kong which is cheaper, faster and more trustworthy: recruitment through word of mouth and referral by relatives. 390. After realizing that the minimum age requirement of 23 years old for female performing artists encouraged misrepresentation, the POEA governing board, in 2001, reduced the minimum age for migrant workers to 18 in accordance with the minimum age prescribed under ILO Convention, provided that any age requirement higher than 18 prescribed by the host government must prevail. 391. During the period under review, the Philippine government instituted skills upgrading and skillspecific, and in some cases country-specific, pre-departure education programs. These included: a. Pre-departure orientation seminars (PDOS) for domestic workers (most of whom are women) that integrates modules dealing with special information needs of women workers, such as gender and development, health and sexuality, HIV/AIDS and self-defense techniques. To upgrade their skill level, POEA instructed TESDA in 1999 to issue certificates of competency to household workers as a requirement for processing of employment contracts for new hires. b. Comprehensive orientation program for entertainers that aims to ensure job readiness of the OPA, and raise awareness and desire for continuing self-development towards better career options. A system of skills and academic training, testing and certification for OPA was first introduced in 1994 through a series of department orders and circulars, and amended in 2001 and 2002 (see paragraphs 382 and 383 for details). c. Language training and testing for nurses, in addition to verification by Philippine overseas labor officials of suitable accommodations for nurses on night shifts prior to deployment. d. For factory workers, most of whom are women as preferred by semi-conductor and computer firms in Taiwan and Korea, PDOS includes orientation to occupational and environmental safety in the workplace, the use of safety gadgets, and need for the ability to follow instructions and guidance through colors, symbols and signs as substitute to written and spoken foreign language. e. The small but increasing number of women seafarers working aboard cruise-passenger lines or floating hotels as waitresses, chambermaids or entertainers, are subject to the international training standards for safety that is required to all seafarers by the 1978 Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping, as amended. 392. Female POLO, consisting of women labor attaches, welfare officers and welfare center coordinators are assigned in host countries that have large populations of Filipino women workers, and are under the administrative jurisdiction of the Philippine diplomatic missions. In April 2001, women labor attaches were posted in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight other 107