Hundreds of Openings for Filipino Nurses in UK, Ireland
MANILA: The Philippine Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has announced that there is a demand for 739 professional nurses in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, according to Manila Times.
“This is a worthy career opportunity for our Filipino nurses who want to seek overseas employment. The UK and Ireland employers provide not only good employment packages but also their governments strictly prohibit charging applicants placement fees,” Baldoz reportedly said, citing a report by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in London..
According to the Labor secretary, Filipino nurses have what it takes to get hired.
Records reportedly show that the Philippines is producing at least 200,000 nursing graduates a year while there are only 2,500 nursing jobs available locally.
The job mismatch has forced Filipino nurses to seek greener pastures abroad or take on non-hospital related jobs here like call center agents and sales executives or worse as overseas domestic helpers, the report said.
In its 2015 first-quarter report, the Social Weather Stations said an estimated 9 million Filipino adults remain jobless, it added.
Baldoz reportedly reminded Filipino nurse-applicants that although there is an abundance of career opportunities in the UK and Ireland, they should be well-prepared for the process that they need to go through in order to land the job.
Nurse-applicants must satisfy requirements set by the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The requirements include attaining an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 7.0; passing the two-part competency examination composed of the multiple choice Computer-Based Test (CBT), which is accessible in many countries, including the Philippines; and hurdling the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), which is held in the UK, it added.
Only applicants who pass the CBT will qualify for the OSCE. They will be granted a visit visa for six months, which will allow them entry into the UK not earlier than 14 days prior to the scheduled date of the OSCE, the report pointed out.
A nurse-applicant who fails the OSCE is allowed to retake it twice. If the applicant still fails, then he or she has to go back to the Philippines even before the expiration of the six-month visit visa, said the news portal.