IT?S a story that?s been repeated much too often for comfort: Filipino worker leaves family and friends for a strange land, slaves away at his job for years, then returns home to the grim realization that he doesn?t really know what to do next.

Many of these overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who decide to settle back home thus find that they have to rely solely on their savings to keep themselves and their families afloat. Others who invest their savings in business may sadly end up with failed ventures because they really didn?t know enough about the business to turn it into a success story. Still others find themselves unemployed, as they are loathe to accept paychecks much lower than their wages abroad, or because they do not have the right skills or the proper preparation for the available jobs.

Fortunately, there are attractive alternatives for OFWs who still want to lead productive lives after years of working abroad ? thanks to a number of companies and groups that have taken it upon themselves to help these so-called new heroes, whose billions in dollars of remittances keep the Philippine economy growing.

Microsoft Corp. in the Philippines, for instance, has been running its Microsoft Tulay program for OFWs since 2004.

Under the program, Microsoft helps provide Information Technology skills to OFWs and their dependents, to help them find better career or business opportunities as well as provide them a better and cheaper way of keeping in touch through the Internet.

The Tulay program is part of Microsoft?s global Unlimited Potential-Community Technology Skills Program and implemented in partnership with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute.

Microsoft provides the funds, software and curriculum grants while the Blas F. Ople Center conducts the actual IT skills training through 24 Tulay centers in the Philippines, and in countries with large OFW populations, namely Italy, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. To date, over 20,000 OFWs and dependents have trained under the program.

According to Mae Rivera-Moreno, Community Affairs Manager of Microsoft Philippines, the company has taken special interest in OFWs because they are a big part of Philippine society and usually the breadwinners.

?Helping them enables us to make a positive impact on a bigger part of society. At the same time, OFWs and their families derive huge benefits from having access to IT skills as these enable them not only to discover better ways of communication, but to also find better economic opportunities,? said Moreno.

?We also want them to discover other ways of earning, and IT is one way to do that. Some graduates who are former OFWs are now using their training to sell their products and expand their market through the Internet,? Moreno added.

Like Microsoft, Informatics Philippines is focused on providing vital Information Technology skills to OFWs and their dependents. A partner of OWWA, Informatics provides training in Auto Cad for engineers, computer programming, computer hardware servicing and web design for OFWs or their beneficiaries who are entitled to the scholarship program of OWWA.

Called the Skills for Employment Scholarship Program of OWWA, the program is open to qualified OFWs who can choose to either undergo the program themselves or have one of their beneficiaries avail themselves of the privilege.

Informatics Philippines president Leo Riingen says that close to 2,000 OFWs and dependents have benefited from the scholarship program last year, and he expects a greater number this year.

?We are streamlining the process so that the OFW or his or her dependent can just go to any of Informatics? 30 branches nationwide and apply for the scholarship,? Riingen said.

He said Informatics saw itself as an enabler or a provider of vital skills that the OFW could make good use of in searching for an alternative career when they come back home.

?We are also thinking of encouraging OFWs to do e-learning so that they can study more and retool. We are giving them that option via the Internet,? said Riingen.

The Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, is working on a tie-up with the Colayco Foundation to do special financial literacy and negosyo discussions in key OFW cities in Asia to encourage these overseas workers to go into business.

PCE, through the Go Negosyo advocacy, held a caravan specifically for OFWs as early as December 2007 to enhance their knowledge on the steps to becoming successful at business, and to highlight opportunities where they can invest on their own venture.

?These OFWs deserve to own a business of their own after experiencing the hardships of working 24/7 in a foreign land. Their potential to become thriving entrepreneurs are just as rich as their determination to succeed,? said Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship Jose Concepcion III, the PCE founding trustee and chief visionary behind the GoNegosyo campaign.

Western Union, meanwhile, which is one of the leading conduits of remittances to the Philippines, chose to focus part of its resources on helping OFW families deal with the psychological and social costs of separation.

OFWs send over $17 billion a year in remittances, and that money is used to support education, provide health care and raise their families? standard of living, but the remittances sometimes come at a cost, such as strained marriages and wayward children.

Western Union, through its Western Union Foundation and key agents and partners, has thus tied up with UGAT Foundation to initiate a two-phased program to help mitigate the psycho-social costs of family separation among OFWs.

The first phase of the program, which was started in 2008, consisted of workshops focused on healing the kids and inspiring them to want to become better.

The second phase, which starts this year, will focus on transformation and empowerment, so that the children will be able to make their dreams happen together with peers and mentors.

Children are the program?s focus because many of them feel abandoned by one or both of their parents overseas. They often see the remittances as enough support that doesn?t necessitate their striving harder to make something of themselves.

?We want to take care of all our customers, and OFW families are our customers, too,? noted Patricia Z. Riingen, SVP, Pacific & Indochina of The Western Union Company. ?We know that when an OFW leaves, his or her family is affected by the absence. Many of the support programs are for the OFWs and not their families, so we think this is a good program to help the families, especially the children, to cope with their situation.?

As of August 2008, UGAT has conducted 14 workshops and has reached out to over 350 children of OFWs. So far, the children have shown greater appreciation for the supreme sacrifice of their parents and understanding of their unique situation, as they should.

Otherwise, their parents? work overseas would be for naught. ?