NEW DELHI: To cater to the increasing global demand for qualified nurses, dental assistants, dialysis technicians, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists and other specialised healthcare professionals, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has undertaken an ambitious plan to train and equip around 1 lakh nurses and 10 million caregivers, so that they can be deployed overseas.
While thousands of healthcare workers have already been posted abroad in hospitals and institutes, the next batch is being given specialised skill training, apart from being given language proficiency training in English, Japanese, and German so that they fit in well and can communicate effectively in overseas placements.
NSDC, a public-private partnership firm with the primary mandate of catalysing the skills landscape in India, has undertaken the task of training a qualified healthcare workforce and placing them abroad.
Apart from that, the NSDC International Limited (NSDCI), a subsidy of NSDC, which is a leading global talent development organisation of India, is actively collaborating and partnering with Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Japan and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to meet their demand aggregation.
To ensure a steady supply of skilled healthcare workers, NSDCI has already set up international centres in India to train nurses and the allied healthcare workforce. It is also planning to start Objective Structured Clinical Examination and the National Council Licensure Examination, a tool that can be utilised to assess healthcare professionals in a clinical setting, and language proficiency tests.
Also, collaborations have already been made with prestigious organisations like the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment Trust, Goethe (German language course), and leading Japanese companies.
Similarly, in the UK, NSDCI is partnering with National Health Service Trust to meet the demand for 1,000 nurses and 1,500 care workers. The USA, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and GCC countries are also part of the strategic plan for demand aggregation. “NSDC is at the forefront of strengthening the skilling ecosystem in India and understands the need for skilled health professionals in India and globally,” said Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO of NSDC and MD of NSDC International.
“NSDCI is working with various prestigious institutions, leading private companies to create global opportunities for healthcare workers and is playing a critical role in addressing the challenges around the availability of skilled talent in the healthcare sector. NSDCI is also working to create channels for skill harmonisation, and training with the partner nations to help bridge the skills gap and also to promote knowledge-sharing and collaboration between academia and industry,” he told this paper.
NSDCI has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Nursing Council, a national regulatory body for nurses and nurse education in India, to create overseas opportunities for healthcare workers.