Chinese nurses enter training for opportunities abroad
Caregivers frustrated by the disrespect their profession often endures in China enter training programmes that offer opportunities overseas
It was the first week of an eight-month German-language course in the coastal city of Weihai in Shandong province, and the students - Chinese nurses and nurse trainees - will jet to Germany later this year, where most already have job offers to work at residential care centres for the elderly.
"The morning I received the job offer, I felt my world suddenly brighten up," said Zheng Min, one student headed to Germany.
Once in Germany, class members will first work as auxiliary staff and later as fully qualified nurses for three years, for a monthly salary of €2,400 (HK$25,700). Afterwards, they will have the option to stay in Germany or return to China.
The Federation of German Employers' Associations for Care Providers launched the programme in January. The project, which aims to recruit 150 Chinese nurses this year, is expected help ease a nursing shortage that could worsen in the coming years. Similar schemes to attract nurses from other Asian countries, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, are also under way.
The same month the project was launched, five nurses who received training and passed a language test at the Shandong International Nurse Training Centre in Weihai left for Frankfurt. There they began training at a care centre for the elderly.
