Short answer. Under Article 44 of the Labor Code, 'manpower' means the portion of the population with actual or potential capability to contribute directly to producing goods and services, while 'entrepreneurship' means training for self-employment or assistance given to individuals or small industries covered by this title of the Code.
What the law says
"Manpower" shall mean that portion of the nation’s population which has actual or potential capability to contribute directly to the production of goods and services.
Labor Code, Article 44 — Manpower And Entrepreneurship Defined. Read the full provision →
What the law says
"Entrepreneurship" shall mean training for self-employment or assisting individual or small industries within the purview of this Title.
Labor Code, Article 44 — Manpower And Entrepreneurship Defined. Read the full provision →
Two working definitions
Article 44 sets the vocabulary for the rest of Title II of the Labor Code. It defines manpower as the portion of the nation's population that has actual or potential capability to contribute directly to producing goods and services, a description broad enough to include people currently working and people who could work with the right training. It defines entrepreneurship separately, as training aimed at self-employment or assistance extended to individuals and small industries. Because Article 44 was written into Presidential Decree No. 442 in 1974, its two definitions still govern how the rest of Title II is read today, even though the labor market they describe has changed enormously since then.
Why the definition of manpower is broad
The definition does not limit manpower to people already employed. By including potential capability, the Labor Code allows government training and manpower programs to reach unemployed or underemployed people, students, and workers whose skills need upgrading, not only the existing labor force. This framing supports the human resources development objective set out in the article before it, since a program aimed only at people already working could not, by itself, expand the country's overall productive capacity. In practice, this means a program can legitimately be described as manpower development even if it targets people who are currently unemployed or still in school, so long as it is aimed at building capability to contribute to production later on.
What entrepreneurship covers here
As used in this title, entrepreneurship is narrower than the everyday business sense of starting a company. It specifically means training for self-employment, or assistance given to individuals or small industries, within the scope of Title II. That ties the term to government-run skills and livelihood programs rather than to corporate formation, financing, or the broader commercial activity that other parts of Philippine law regulate under different definitions. The distinction matters in practice because a program that funds business expansion for an already-established company, for example, does not automatically qualify as entrepreneurship training under this title merely because it involves commerce; the training or assistance has to be aimed at self-employment or at individuals and small industries.
How the definitions get used
These definitions matter because later provisions of Title II, including the mandate of the National Manpower and Youth Council, are written around them. Knowing exactly who counts as part of the manpower and what counts as entrepreneurship training helps in understanding which government programs and agencies a particular training or livelihood initiative falls under. The definitions bind the government agencies that administer Title II programs rather than private employers directly, though a private training provider seeking accreditation under those programs still has to fit its offerings within these same terms to qualify.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 43 — Objective Of Human Resources Development
- Labor Code, Article 45 — Composition Of The Council