High demand to fill aged-care jobs in Australia

BY MAVIS PODOKOLO

Government is calling for nurses to fill up around 300 jobs available in aged-care services in Australia.
This opportunity is also open to the 158 nurses who were commissioned last week.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (MFAET) says the 300 nurses will join the labour mobility scheme under this particular service.
Commissioner for Trade MFAET Barret Saloto said:
“We are looking at recruiting 300 nurses to deliver age-care services.
“We already have selected 75 nurses and now we are looking to including another 25.
“But on our list we want 300 onboard,” Saloto said.
He said with the newly graduated 158 nurses not all of them will secure jobs here in the country and so the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) “has the data on who are currently on the job and those who graduated from their training and not in the formal job”.
“Thus, they [MHMS] gave us the list of 300 nurses that are available to join the labour mobility scheme and so they will go through the same process like everyone else went through for instance these selected Nurses must go through this training.
“We will ensure that health are health workers and the services that they deliver to our people in the country is maintained and so we have been working (MFAET) closely with MHMS to ensure proper recruitment process happened.
“The concern for our health workers would be having no nurses left behind to provide health services back in the country.
“But I don’t think it will become a big issue because it will be addressed by the responsible authorities,” he said.

BY INDY MAEALASIA

Ongoing limited land access and lack of investment in tourism facilities remain major barriers to the country’s tourism sector.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)- Solomon Islands Threshold Program (SITP) Resident Director, Charles Jakosa highlighted this during a press conference yesterday at the United States Conference room at Heritage Park Hotel

Beside praising the country’s attractive landscape and people’s hospitality, Mr Jakosa said limited access to land remains one of the stumbling blocks for tourism investors.

“We all know that land in Solomon Islands is highly contested with lots of questions about who owns land, who has access to land, who has the ability to control land so as an investor, people are reluctant to utilize their money and develop land because you know today you might have a right but next year maybe somebody says you don’t and then you lose your investment,” Jakosa said.

With lack of tourism facilities, Jakosa explained how vital these facilities are for visitors and gave an example on how necessary services like cash machine, tourism information and SIM card should be provided at the airports.

Identifying these stumbling blocks, Jakosa said they aim to solve these issues by working closely with the government and other partners through their Accessing Land for Tourism Investment Facilitation Project (ALTIF).

According to MCC, this project in turn aims to help increase job opportunities, achieve foreign exchange benefits, increase productivity and purchase of local goods.

MCC is now going to work closely with few local communities in the Western, Central and Guadalcanal provinces to develop land for tourism activities. 

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

Job opportunities for elderly care in Australia for Solomon Islander is increasing, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Director acting for External Trade under Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Barret Saloto said they are looking at training 100 individuals to provide for age-care services overseas.

Mr Saloto confirmed this during the announcement of age-care training Preparatory Training to be delivered in Honiara, Solomon Islands press briefing organised by the Australia, through the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC) earlier this week.

 “In fact under this age care preparatory training programme we are looking at training 100 Solomon Islanders to undergo this training and we have selected 75 workers already from the work ready full and so we are left with 25 workers we are yet to select,” he said.

Saloto said 75 workers have been selected and they have passed the language and literacy training in order for them to be placed in this programme but 25 workers are yet to be selected.

“We are working closely with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to identify some of the nurses that they would like to come on board and be trained under this programme.

“In fact the MHMS already gave us the list of nurses that they think available to under the training under the age care,” he said.

Saloto said this is a very good initiative in terms of boosting participation under the age-care sector.

“Labour mobility is the high priority for Solomon Islands Government and benefits a lot of people and a lot of more of our people are still eager and keen to join this scheme.”

Saloto adds, Solomon Islands have 32 workers working in Age-care in Australia and they came through APTC training; 12 of those are male workers and 20 of them are females and so “we are looking forward for more workers to be trained”.

Counsellor Alison Purnell said Australia’s support across the region through APTC remains the same. The partnership is expected to yield positive outcome in shaping the future of age care programme.

“We anticipate we will see positive outcome from this collaborative effort. I take this opportunity to highlight the cordial relationship between APTC and the labour mobility unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade.”