I just read this in the newspaper ... did not know it was so difficult ..Translated article Dutch newspaper from the east of the country:
If you can't find healthcare personnel anywhere, you have to do something. The need is now so high that four care organizations are enlisting the help of 75 healthcare students from Indonesia.
Much is already being done to tackle the acute staff shortage in healthcare, but it is not enough. The shortage continues to increase everywhere. And that will not change in the coming years, not even in this region. Something must be done now.
The care organizations are therefore employing 75 students from Indonesia. These young people in training can then start working in eastern Dutch cities during their studies. A win-win situation, that is the expectation.
This approach is new for the cooperative of which these four healthcare organizations belong. And that also applies to this region, says Lex Smetsers, chairman of the board of directors of the cooperative. “However, many positive experiences are already known nationwide.” For example, Smetsers was the first in the Netherlands to gain experience with the deployment of Indonesian students in healthcare. Back then at a care organization in the province Drenthe. And that went so well that they now also dare to do it here in the province Twente and the region Achterhoek.
This plan raises several questions. What about the language, for example? According to Lex Smetsers, this has been thought through. “The students who come here have had intensive training in the Dutch language and culture for several months.” The recruitment and selection is done in Indonesia by the organization Yomema. “Part of the selection are various tests to ensure that the basic knowledge of the students meets the requirements that we set here, and to be as sure as possible that a student can take such a big step.” Once here, the students start at the bottom. “They first start working as a starting care employee at the helping level. Then as a caretaker for individual health care. And in the meantime they are studying to become a nurse at a higher vocational level.”
And why Indonesia? Because, according to the cooperative, there is a surplus of healthcare workers there. "Many of them are therefore without a job, while they can be of great importance in the Netherlands." The students come to the Netherlands on the basis of a study residence permit. While they follow their training as a nursing professional here, they can be employed for about four years at the care centers. Then they can return to Indonesia with this new experience and gained knowledge. The training is paid for by the healthcare organizations themselves. Smetsers: “As is often the case with other students for the training of a certified nurse on bachelor level.”
According to Smetsers, this approach is more than fixing a temporary emergency. The cooperative continues to focus on new healthcare technologies and the training of lateral entrants and people with distanced from the labor market. “But we also see added value in the use of migrant labor.”
View attachment 3045
"Employers in The Netherlands who want to bring professionals such as welders, mechanics or nurses to the Netherlands depend on a work permit. Whether they get that permit is determined by the UWV (like Manpower in Indonesia). Companies must first demonstrate that, despite all their efforts, they have not been able to find staff in the Netherlands. They then have to prove that it also failed within the EU.
It sometimes results in a file of up to 300 pages and can easily take half a year, says CEO Frank van Gool of OTTO Holding. His employment agency has now brought about 35 nurses from the Philippines to the Netherlands. They were introduced to our way of working in advance, received Dutch language lessons and then went to work at three regional hospitals. Also in Indonesia - where there is a surplus of healthcare personnel, just like in the Philippines - OTTO prepares nurses."
Frank van Gool called on the cabinet to come up with a simple scheme that allows companies to attract skilled workers from outside Europe.