UK needs more nurses, health workers
By ROSE ECLARINAL/ ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau | 11/20/2008 4:18 PM
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LONDON - Overseas Filipino worker Lawrence Cabrera barely gets enough rest. He works six times a week and accepts loads of overtime work.
Since he moved to an agency to work as a nurse in UK’s private hospitals, he started earning as much as 6,000 pounds or half a million pesos in a month. He said this proves the private health sector needs more nurses.
"When I went to the agency, I got more work. The private companies are getting bigger including private health care services such as hemodialysis. That means a bigger need for nurses," he said.
This month the UK Home Office has released an occupation shortage list. Topping the list are jobs in the health sector to include nurses, senior care workers, and dentists.
The UK also needs chefs, civil and chemical engineers, and teachers among many others.
The UK government-approved occupation shortage list means work opportunities for Filipinos.
"That would mean allowing UK employers to directly recruit foreign workers from outside the UK and EU. This is good for Filipinos especially in the field of health care sectors," said Atty. Jainal Rasul Jr., labor attaché of the Philippine embassy.
The embassy has confirmed 160 job orders for nurses, 20 for pipe fitters and 50 for chefs.
It is projected that some 800,000 workers are needed to fill vacant jobs in the coming years.
For some sectors, the good times appear to be over as they get a nasty taste of the global financial crisis – but not in the health sector.
