In short:
In the rural South Australian town of Cleve, five new trainee nurses have been recruited to help address growing workforce gaps.
The pilot project is the culmination of three years of work across multiple industries and will lead to trainees becoming enrolled nurses upon completion of their training.
What’s next?
The South Australian Skills Commission says it’s continuing to expand the model to support workforce needs in the construction and automotive industries.
The rural town of Cleve in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula has received a healthcare boost with the addition of migrant trainee nurses from the Philippines.
The nurses are part of a semi-skilled occupational recognition service migration pilot, a three-year effort delivered by the SA Skills Commission, Eyre and Far North Local Health Network, District Council of Cleve and TAFE SA.
Five nurses have been recruited to Cleve so far, with two already on the ground and working.
All five were already working as registered nurses in the Philippines before coming to Australia, but because their nursing degrees were not recognised by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), they were unable to work in Australia.
The program, set up to address South Australia’s health care shortage, will see them trained as nurses under Australian regulations so they can eventually register with the AHPRA.
Leaster Mendoza has been in the town for just two months, and says he found the program online.
“I’m really enjoying the work here and my colleagues are really supportive with me and with my workmates,” Mr Mendoza said.
“At the moment I live here by myself, but we’re planning to process the papers of my partner so she can come and join me here real soon.”
Mr Mendoza said his training would run for a year and a half until he became an enrolled nurse.
“I’m a registered nurse in the Philippines, but we still need to upgrade our skills in Australia. After that, we can have a registration in AHPRA and it will help us to practice nursing in this country,” he said.
While he is enjoying exploring the region, the change in weather is taking some getting used to.
“We don’t have winter in the Philippines, it’s always hot and humid,” Mr Mendoza said.
“It’s freezing with winter coming, but it’s still really nice.”
Boost for the regions
District Council of Cleve Mayor Phil Cameron said the program had been a “fantastic outcome” for the town.
“We initially did a skills audit here in Cleve and we found out we were about 50 skilled workers short,” Cr Cameron said.
“To have boots on the ground, it’s a fantastic result.”
Keeping skilled migrant workers in Cleve has been a major focus, with the council using a federal grant to establish nine houses.
“Rental properties are very scarce here in Cleve, and the council, to its credit, has done well to put those houses aside for the skilled workers,” Cr Cameron said.
Addressing shortages in health care
South Australian skills commissioner Cameron Baker said the pilot was three years in the making.
“Through this program we’ve worked through all the opportunities around identifying nursing talent in the Philippines, so individuals that wouldn’t normally have a pathway into enrolled nursing or registered nursing here in Australia,” Mr Baker said.
“I think this is the first time a state has really looked at semi-skilled migration and those opportunities.
“We’re using the 407 visa process to enable this, which means that the trainee nurses that are coming across can bring their families.”
He said the pilot program was a “prime example” of attracting skilled workers to areas with acute shortages.
“Where we can’t attract locals to undertake that work or actually convince people to move to the regions, this is a great example of using the apprenticeship and traineeship system to enable that.”
Source Credits: ABC NEWS