Nursing students assured of jobs in Britain

Filipino nursing students can have greater assurance of landing overseas employment in the next three years, said Labour Secretary Patrica Sto. Tomas yesterday. Fresh from her 18-day marketing trip in various parts of Europe, Sto. Tomas expects the "demand for medical services in the United Kingdom to increase because of its ageing population".

She specifically confirmed the Department of Labour and Employment statement earlier that the majority of British nationals now prefer to take up information and technology courses from which they are assured of higher income and less physical work. This results in more job vacancies in areas such as nursing.

Sto. Tomas estimates a demand increase for 80,000 foreign workers in the next three years to supply the total UK need for medical services in nursing, physical therapy and related medical courses, to attend to their elderly.

Aside from visiting Britain, the labour chief also visited Germany, Italy and Spain in support of President Macapagal-Arroyo's programme to create one million jobs for Filipinos. There are an estimated 210,000 documented Filipino workers already employed in these European countries.

However, there is no assurance that the job vacancies would be exclusive for Filipinos. So far, some hospitals in Britain have already hired 1,000 overseas Filipinos.