Caregiver Job Requirements in the Philippines: The Full Checklist

TL;DR: Philippine families and home-care agencies ask for the same short stack: proof of age, a TESDA caregiving certificate or training record, an NBI or police clearance, a barangay clearance, a medical certificate, and two references they can actually call. When you are hired as a kasambahay under RA 10361, the employer or the agency pays for those pre-employment documents, not you. If this is your first job, RA 11261 waives the government fees on most of them, once. You can qualify without paid experience, because RA 11965 lets TESDA certify people through a competency or portfolio assessment of prior learning.

Job ads list caregiver job requirements without saying which rulebook they come from. One ad wants a National Certificate. The next wants a barangay clearance and a good reference. Two different laws sit behind them, and knowing which one covers the job in front of you decides what you pay for and what you can refuse.

Two laws decide which requirements apply to you

The Caregivers' Welfare Act, Republic Act No. 11965, was approved on 23 November 2023. Section 3 defines a caregiver as a person at least eighteen years old who is either a licensed health professional voluntarily listed with DOLE as a caregiver, or someone TESDA has assessed and certified. Section 4 applies it to private homes, care facilities, and other residential settings, whether you are hired directly or placed by a PESO or a private employment agency.

Batas Kasambahay, Republic Act No. 10361, covers the other version of this job: a household worker who also looks after lola. Section 16 makes it unlawful to employ anyone below fifteen as a domestic worker, and working children, defined in Section 4 as domestic workers fifteen and above but below eighteen, are entitled to the minimum wage and every benefit in the Act. That fifteen-year floor is where the confusion starts. It belongs to kasambahay work. Certified caregiver work starts at eighteen, full stop.

Most applicants treat "caregiver" as one job title. It is two. A family in Quezon City wanting a kasambahay who also gives lola her maintenance meds is hiring under RA 10361. An agency in Cebu asking for a National Certificate and a shift roster is hiring under RA 11965. The duties overlap. The paperwork does not. For the employer's version of the duty list, read our caregiver job description guide.

What families and agencies actually ask for

Section 6 of RA 11965 and Section 12 of RA 10361 both list the documents an employer may require before the contract is signed. The kasambahay version adds a duly authenticated birth certificate, or another record of your age such as a voter's identification card or a baptismal record. The documents for a caregiver job are short. The column nobody explains to applicants is the third one.

| Requirement | Who asks for it | Who pays | Where to get it | | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Birth certificate or valid ID showing age | Almost everyone | Employer or agency on a kasambahay hire; free once for first-time jobseekers | PSA outlet or your barangay | | TESDA Caregiving NC II or a variant | Agencies, and families managing medical routines | You, unless a scholarship covers it | A TESDA-registered centre, then assessment | | Caregiving training certificate without the NC | Agencies, as a fallback | You | An accredited training institution | | First aid or basic life support | Most agencies, many families | You, or bundled inside the NC II | An accredited first-aid provider | | NBI clearance | Almost everyone | Employer or agency on a kasambahay hire; free once for first-time jobseekers | clearance.nbi.gov.ph, then biometrics | | Police clearance | Agencies, and families who skip the NBI | Same as the NBI clearance | Your city or municipal police station | | Barangay clearance | Almost everyone | Same as the NBI clearance | Your barangay hall | | Medical certificate | Almost everyone | Employer or agency on a kasambahay hire; public-hospital copy free once for first-time jobseekers | Your LGU health officer or a public hospital | | Drug test and chest x-ray | Many agencies, some families | You, in practice | An accredited clinic | | Two contactable references | Everyone worth working for | Free | A former employer, supervisor, or the family you cared for |

Two notes. The drug test and chest x-ray appear in neither statute, so an agency demanding them is setting its own bar and should quote the price first. And references beat paper. A family reading five applications calls one number before it reads a single certificate.

Who pays for your papers

This is the sentence most applicants never read. Section 12 of RA 10361 closes with a plain instruction: "The cost of the foregoing shall be borne by the prospective employer or agency, as the case may be." On a kasambahay hire, the medical certificate, the barangay and police clearance, the NBI clearance, and the birth certificate are the employer's bill. Section 13 adds that no share in the recruitment or finder's fee may be charged against the worker, whether the hire came through a private employment agency or a third party. RA 11965 says the same for certified caregivers in Section 23, which requires agencies to ensure caregivers "are not charged or levied any recruitment or placement fees whatsoever."

The caregiver law is quieter about document costs. Section 6 lists what an employer may require and does not repeat the kasambahay cost rule, so do not assume it. What it adds is one real relief. First-time jobseekers may obtain the medical or health certificate and the NBI or police clearance free of charge under Republic Act No. 11261, the First Time Jobseekers Assistance Act, approved on 10 April 2019.

Read that Act before you queue anywhere. Section 4 waives fees on the police clearance, the NBI clearance, the barangay clearance, a medical certificate from a public hospital, your birth certificate, your TIN, and a UMID card. Section 5 requires a barangay certification saying you are a first-time jobseeker, so start at the barangay hall. Section 3 allows the benefit only once, so run the whole batch in one week. Two exclusions catch people out. Laboratory tests and other medical procedures needed for the certificate are not free, so the chest x-ray and drug test stay on your side. Section 8 leaves out PRC licensure exams, passport authentication, Civil Service exams, and driver's licences. Section 7 makes your PESO office responsible for helping you collect the set.

Qualifying as a caregiver without experience

Here is the caregiver qualification route almost nobody uses, written into the statute. Section 3 of RA 11965 says TESDA may certify a graduate of a caregiving qualification, a graduate of allied health care courses, or a "practitioner or any person with prior learning and/or experience who has undergone competency or portfolio assessment." Three years of caring for your lola is prior learning. It only counts if you can hand someone paper.

Build that paper while the memory is fresh:

• [ ] A signed, dated statement from the person you cared for or their next of kin, naming the period and the tasks
• [ ] The tasks written out, not "took care of lola": bed baths, transfers from bed to chair, medication reminders, blood pressure checks, dressing changes done under a nurse's instruction
• [ ] A certificate of service on letterhead for volunteer work at a barangay health station or a home for the aged, with dates and hours
• [ ] A first-aid certificate from an accredited provider, the cheapest credibility you can buy in a weekend
• [ ] Two referees who already agreed to answer a call and to you sharing their numbers

Enrolment is easier than people assume. The TESDA training regulations for Caregiving (Elderly) NC II, promulgated on 9 June 2020, set the trainee entry requirements at "completed at least 10 years basic education or Holder of Alternative Learning Systems (ALS) certificate of completion with grade 10 equivalent" plus basic communication skills. No college. No nursing background. The programme runs 401 hours of training plus 160 hours of supervised industry learning, 561 hours in total.

Caregiving is not one certificate either. TESDA publishes separate training regulations for Caregiving (Elderly) NC II, Caregiving (Newborn to Pre-schooler) NC II, Caregiving (Grade Schooler to Adolescent) NC II, and Caregiving (Clients with Special Needs) NC II. Pick the one that matches the work you want, because the core competencies differ.

If the fee is the blocker, TESDA's scholarship and student assistance programs page lists the Training for Work Scholarship Program, the Special Training for Employment Program, Private Education Student Financial Assistance, and Tulong Trabaho under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. Slots depend on the year's budget and your region, so confirm what is open with your TESDA regional or provincial office first. Our guide on how to become a caregiver in the Philippines covers choosing between courses and providers.

Agencies band you by what you can safely do

An agency does not hire a caregiver. It hires a care level. Home Health Care, a Philippine provider, publishes three bands on its private duty caregiver page, with rates effective 1 April 2026. Basic care is bathing, dressing, eating, walking, and companionship. Intermediate adds vital-signs monitoring and support for stroke, dementia, and post-hospital recovery. ICU-level care means continuous monitoring for patients on a ventilator, oxygen, or a tracheostomy. That is what the interview sorts you into, and the higher band pays more. Claiming a level you have never worked is how a patient gets hurt and how you lose the job in week two. Name what you have done and what you have never touched.

Twelve caregiver interview questions and answers

These are the questions Philippine families and agencies actually ask. Each model answer is what a trained caregiver says, not what sounds nice.

1. "How would you bathe a patient who cannot get out of bed?" Close the door, warm water, wash and dry one section at a time while the rest stays covered, and check the skin at the tailbone and heels as you go. The skin check is what separates training from guessing.
2. "The patient falls at 2am. What do you do?" Do not lift them. Check whether they respond and whether anything is bleeding or bent wrong, call the family contact, and call emergency services for a head injury, a limb they cannot move, or any loss of consciousness.
3. "What if the client refuses her medicine?" Never force it and never hide it in food without instruction. Ask why, offer it again later, and report the refusal to the family and the prescribing doctor the same day.
4. "A family member accuses you of taking money. What happens next?" Stay calm and never argue in front of the patient. Ask the family to check together, then give your standing rule: no handling cash or valuables without a written list and a signature.
5. "Can you work on your rest day if we need you?" Yes to an occasional agreed extra day, no to a standing arrangement. Section 21 of RA 10361 entitles a kasambahay to at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest a week, and any swap belongs in writing.
6. "You will be living in. Any concerns?" Ask where you will sleep, whether the room locks, and whether you have private time off duty. Section 16 of RA 11965 requires three adequate meals a day and humane sleeping conditions that respect privacy.
7. "How do you prevent bedsores?" Reposition on a schedule, keep the skin clean and dry, check the pressure points every turn, and report redness that does not fade instead of waiting for it to open.
8. "Can you take vital signs?" Answer honestly. If you can, name them: pulse, temperature, respiration rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. Those five are the basic health-related services listed in Section 7 of RA 11965.
9. "Lola asks the same question twenty times. What do you do?" Answer calmly each time and redirect to something she likes. Never correct her sharply or argue about facts. Log what triggers the agitation so the family sees the pattern.
10. "You cannot reach us and something is wrong. What then?" Call emergency services first, then the second contact on the list. Ask in the interview for a written emergency sheet with the hospital, the doctor's number, allergies, and where the medicines are kept.
11. "Why did you leave your last job?" Give a short factual reason with no complaints about the previous family. "The patient passed away" or "the contract ended" is enough. Bad-mouthing an old employer ends interviews.
12. "Is there anything you cannot do?" Name the limits: injections, changing a prescribed dose, wound care beyond what a nurse taught you, and lifting a patient heavier than you can handle alone. A caregiver is not a nurse, and saying so is a strength.

Rehearse the first three out loud. Applicants lose jobs on delivery, not knowledge. Our caregiver resume sample has the layout Philippine families read fastest.

What to ask the family before you say yes

An interview runs both ways, and asking these makes you look experienced rather than difficult.

• [ ] What are the exact hours, and who covers the patient when I am off?
• [ ] Which day is my rest day, and is it a full twenty-four hours?
• [ ] Who else lives in the house, and who gives me instructions when the family disagrees?
• [ ] In an emergency, which hospital, whose number, and is there money set aside for the trip?
• [ ] Who pays SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, and from which day?
• [ ] Will there be a written contract, and do I get a signed copy?
• [ ] Will I get a payslip every payday?

The benefit question has an answer in law, so you can check theirs against it. Section 14 of RA 11965 covers a caregiver under SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG from the first day of employment. Section 30 of RA 10361 covers a kasambahay after one month, with the employer shouldering the premiums, though a kasambahay earning ₱5,000 a month or more pays a proportionate share. Section 5 of RA 11965 requires a signed and notarised contract before service starts, and Section 12 requires a payslip every payday. A family that will not put terms in writing is telling you something.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• Any placement fee. Section 13 of RA 10361 and Section 23 of RA 11965 both prohibit charging recruitment or placement fees to the worker. "Processing fee", "training bond", and "uniform deposit" are the same thing under another name.
• Anyone keeping your originals. Bring photocopies, show the originals, take them home the same day. Document confiscation is how people get trapped in a job they cannot leave.
• "Finish our training and we guarantee a job abroad." No training centre can guarantee employment. Overseas hiring is regulated separately, so verify any foreign recruiter with the Department of Migrant Workers before money moves.
• Deposits against breakage. Section 14 of RA 10361 makes it unlawful to require deposits covering loss or damage to household items, and Section 15 bans debt bondage outright.
• An interview at a private house with no verification. Ask for a video call or a public meeting first. Send the address and schedule to someone you trust, and message them when you arrive and leave.
• Vague duties and a salary quoted only in person. Get the tasks and the number in writing before you travel. Our caregiver salary guide shows what the role is worth before that conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the basic requirements for a caregiver job in the Philippines?

Most families and agencies ask for proof of age, an NBI or police clearance, a barangay clearance, a medical certificate, and references they can call. Agencies and families hiring for medication or mobility routines also ask for a TESDA National Certificate in caregiving or a training certificate. Section 6 of RA 11965 and Section 12 of RA 10361 list these as the documents an employer may require before the contract is signed.

Can I get a caregiver job without experience?

Yes. RA 11965 lets TESDA certify a person with prior learning or experience through a competency or portfolio assessment, so unpaid family care can count when you document it. Collect dated, signed statements describing the tasks you performed, add a first-aid course, and apply to families first, because agencies screen harder on paper.

Do I have to pay for my NBI clearance and medical certificate?

Not always. Section 12 of RA 10361 says the prospective employer or agency bears the cost of the pre-employment documents for a kasambahay hire. If you are a first-time jobseeker, RA 11261 waives government fees on the NBI clearance, police clearance, barangay clearance, and a public-hospital medical certificate once, though laboratory tests are excluded.

Do I need TESDA Caregiving NC II to be hired?

Not for every job. A family hiring a kasambahay who also looks after a grandparent often skips it, but home-care agencies and families managing medication or mobility routines almost always ask. The National Certificate is also what brings you under RA 11965, which sets the applicable regional minimum wage, overtime pay, and a payslip as your floor.

What is the minimum age to work as a caregiver in the Philippines?

RA 11965 defines a caregiver as a person at least eighteen years old, so certified caregiver work starts at 18. RA 10361 sets a separate floor for household work and makes it unlawful to employ anyone below fifteen as a domestic worker. Nobody serious hires a minor to care for a frail adult, so treat 18 as the real entry age.

Start applying before the papers are perfect

The usual order is wrong. People wait for the National Certificate, then the clearances, then apply, and lose six months. Start at the barangay hall this week for the first-time jobseeker certification, run the free clearances in one batch, write down the family care you have already done, and apply while training is still going. Families in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao hire on references and a clean clearance, then support the certificate later.

Browse live caregiver jobs and read the requirement lines before the salary lines. If you are new here, get hired explains how families find and check profiles. When your documents and references are ready, create your helper account and list the specific tasks you can do safely, because that is the line families read first.