the news spoke...
Last night there was a news report in TV Patrol about Canadian employment. The said country, particularly the province of Alberta, is in need of thousands of professionals and skilled workers to fill in their diminishing workforce.
Hector Goudreau, Alberta's Minister of Employment and Immigration, said that the fast developing Alberta is hiring skilled workers like welders, mechanics and machine operators; and health professionals like doctors, dentists and nurses. He also said that they prefer Filipino workers because of their skills, flexibility, adaptability and good work ethics. And so once again, the gates of the red maple leaf country are opening to the Filipino workers.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), they have plans to transfer the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose contracts are about to expire in countries like the Middle East and move them to Canada, for in the latter, they will earn more. For example, welders earn 6,000 Canadian dollars a month compared to only 400-500 dollars in Saudi Arabia. Pipe fitters earn 3,800 Canadian dollars and Nurses earn 4,500 Canadian dollars.
Nurses, Nurses, Nurses...
Nurses as always the so-called "in-demand profession" throughout the world due to the unstoppable ever-fast aging process, is one of the professions that provinces of Canada are willing to invest their dollars. Lucky for us, for the Philippines is one of the top-producing countries of this care-centered profession. And our country is over-supplied of this ever-growing manpower and most of them upon having their bachelor's degree ended up jobless; for the hospitals here are all jampacked!
Canadian invitation is a very good opportunity for Filipinos. This is a different avenue for us to take other than the usual Nurse destination, the United States of America. Unfortunately for me, even though I am a Registered Nurse, I cannot venture in this country because a minimum of 2-year continuous hospital experience is required.
the problem…
Since we all know that the Philippines is a factory of nurses, presently most of them are either jobless or resting their asses in call center seats. Let me count myself as one of them.
Each Filipino nurse thinks that there are no opportunities here in our country for what we are facing now; there are no job vacancies for staff nurses in the hospitals. And some of these institutions are accepting newly licensed nurses for a not-so-tantamount service to them. Not all of us can afford their offer.
I hope…I hope…
I attended last 20th and 21st of September, the 3rd Philippines Nursing Opportunities, Conference and Expo in Mandarin Suites, Gateway Mall. Miss Emms, the event organizer, is also a nurse-entrepreneur. She invited Miss Jocelyn Sanchez, the Chief of Manpower Registry Division of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). According to her, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health is reaching their office because the said country is badly in-need of nurses; but the problem is, most of our nurses are lacking the needed hospital experiences. Also, according to the government office, Saudi Arabia is willing to invest their Riyal for the training of the “no-experience nurses”, but there is no further notice about this.
For my fellow nurses, I know Saudi Arabia is not the top choice in our list, but let’s think twice. It may serve us a good training ground to prepare us for better opportunities; besides, there are lots of Filipinos enjoying their life in there.
I hope our government can make more negotiations like what they are working now with Saudi Arabia. I hope the 4 year of nursing education we had will not be thrown into waste. I hope they will help us.
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