PEOS: The Free Seminar Before You Apply Abroad

PEOS is the Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar. It is free, it is taken online at peos.dmw.gov.ph, and it is meant to be done before you apply for a job abroad, while you can still walk away from a bad offer.

PEOS is not PDOS

Sorting this out first saves a wasted trip.

The PDOS guide covers the other one. Both are compulsory steps in their own stage, and neither substitutes for the other.

What it costs

Nothing. DMW’s own wording is “Registration is free!” There is no PEOS fee, no PEOS “processing” charge and no accredited PEOS agent who may charge you one.

That matters more than it looks. Charging a worker any amount greater than the allowable schedule is one of the enumerated acts of illegal recruitment under Republic Act No. 10022, and it carries imprisonment of not less than 12 years and 1 day and a fine of ₱1,000,000.00 to ₱2,000,000.00.

Registering

You need DMW e-Registration credentials, not a separate PEOS account.

If you have no e-registration number yet, you create one free through DMW Online Services and come back. The DMW online services guide covers e-registration and the reference number it issues.

Pick the module type that matches the work you are actually applying for. A household service worker taking the professional track has not covered the rules that will govern their own contract.

The 8 modules

There is an examination based on these, so they are not decorative.

Module 1’s name is its checklist: 7 things that change when you leave, and income is only one of them.

What sits behind module 3

“Forewarned, Forearmed” is the module worth taking slowly, because the law behind it is unusually specific about what an agency may not do.

Under RA 10022, illegal recruitment includes charging more than the allowable schedule, publishing false information, reprocessing workers through a job order for nonexistent work or work different from the actual overseas job, substituting or altering an approved contract to the worker’s prejudice, withholding travel documents for monetary reasons, failing to deploy a contracted worker without valid reason, and failing to reimburse a worker’s documentation expenses where deployment does not happen through no fault of theirs.

It counts as economic sabotage when committed by a syndicate, meaning a group of 3 or more persons conspiring together, or in large scale, meaning against 3 or more persons. The maximum penalty applies where the person recruited is under 18 years of age, or where the recruiter holds no licence at all.

Conviction also carries automatic revocation of the licence of the agency, lending institution, training school or medical clinic involved.

What sits behind module 4

The fees module is about money leaving your pocket before any arrives. Two rules from RA 10022 are worth carrying into it.

A loan for placement fees may not bear interest exceeding 8% per annum, and an agency may not make you issue postdated cheques for it. Nor may anyone impose a compulsory and exclusive arrangement forcing you to borrow from, or take medical examinations from, specifically designated providers.

The recruitment agencies guide carries the government-mandated deployment fees, including the USD 100 processing fee on a direct hire, USD 25 for OWWA and ₱600.00 for Pag-IBIG, so you can tell an official charge from an invented one.

What sits behind module 5

“Seal the Deal” covers the minimum provisions of the standard employment contract. The protection that outlives the contract is in the statute: the liability of the principal or employer and the recruitment agency for any claim is joint and several, that provision must be written into the contract as a condition of its approval, and the agency’s corporate officers, directors and partners are themselves jointly and solidarily liable.

Those liabilities run for the entire duration of the contract and are not affected by any substitution, amendment or modification of it.

Where a claim has to be filed, the Labor Arbiters of the NLRC have original and exclusive jurisdiction and must decide it within 90 days of the complaint.

The money claims route covers what to do when a contract is breached abroad.

The law the modules run on

Three statutes frame everything above, and their dates explain why the office names keep changing in older advice.

Deployment itself is not open-ended. The State allows it only to countries where Filipino workers’ rights are protected, shown by existing labour and social laws, by being a signatory to relevant conventions, or by a bilateral agreement. Absent a clear showing, no deployment permit issues. Board members who vote to deploy without a guarantee face removal and disqualification from public office for 5 years.

Where the certificate goes

The site issues a PEOS certificate on completion. It is the evidence that you did the seminar, and it belongs in the same file as the rest of your pre-employment documents. The OEC guide covers the Overseas Employment Certificate that module 2 is about, and the recruitment agencies guide covers checking that the agency recruiting you is licensed before any of this is worth doing.

What this page does not cover

DMW’s PEOS portal does not publish the module text itself, the examination questions, a passing score, a validity period for the certificate, or a processing time, so none of those is stated here. The placement fee schedule referred to in module 4 is set by separate issuance and is not reproduced on this page. The PEOS office is at the 2nd Floor, Blas F. Ople Building, Ortigas Avenue corner EDSA, Mandaluyong City, with the division reachable at wed@dmw.gov.ph.

Related

The PDOS guide covers the pre-departure seminar PEOS is constantly confused with, the DMW online services guide covers the e-registration number you need to sign in, and the OEC guide covers the certificate module 2 exists to explain. For module 6, the country pages carry what each destination’s own government publishes: Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, nurse wages in Canada and domestic helper pay in Hong Kong.

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