HYDERABAD: Nurses from the Scheduled Castes (SC) community, who are planning to work in foreign countries, usually have to go through the emotionally and financially taxing journey of getting trained for the qualifying exams, paying the exam fee, applying for a passport, consulting overcharging overseas consultancy firms and getting the right interview for the right job. A pilot project initiated under the SC Corporation hopes to address this problem.
The Telangana Skill Development Centre for Nurses (a private agency) was set up at Vanasthalipuram in Hyderabad last year to offer Occupational English Test (OET), TOEFL and IELTS training to 200 practising nurses for six months and them job-ready for opportunities in the United Kingdom (UK). The trainees from the first batch have recently completed the programme and are the process of giving interviews with hospitals is set to begin soon.
“Once they are selected, they will join the hospitals and would be on three-month observation period in the UK, after which they will have to clear their clinical exams. Though the salary would depend on their skills and experience, the minimum they will get is Rs 2 lakh per month,” Ch Saidulu, the programme coordinator, tells Express.He informs that 40 per cent of trainees will get a job abroad while another 50 per cent of them would be offered jobs in India or Telangana.
The Centre has not only been providing food and accommodation to the trainees, but has also been taking care of the exam fee for the qualifying English exams, passport application expenses and the process, and has been taking the support of an overseas consultancy having tie-ups with public and private hospitals in the UK.
However, the work abroad assistance is free only for the UK, and if one wishes to work in Canada, Singapore, or Australia, there is a visa processing fee that they would have to bear. The second batch of training has just begun with 200 trainees.
Indians in UK
According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) data for 2021-22, 37,815 Indian nurses are registered to work in the UK’s National Health Service. The number has gone up from 28,192 a year ago. After UK residents, Indians form the biggest portion of the workforce, the report adds