THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All 116 nurses, who passed out of India’s first finishing school for nurses here, have landed jobs in hospitals in the United Arab Emirates.
Labour Minister Shibu Baby John, who distributed offer letters to 73 nurses at the Press Club here on Friday, said there were 118 students in the first batch and two of them had dropped out. Offer letters were sent to other recruits. Doha had expressed interest in absorbing nurses, he said.
The nurses got offer letters with an average monthly salary of Rs 122,000 to work at NMC Specialty Hospital, Brightpoint Royal Women’s Hospital, NMC Hospital, Al Ain, NMC Day Surgery Center, Mohammed Bin Zayed City and NMC Royal Hospital, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi.
The Nursing Institute for Career Enhancement was started last year by BR Academy of Abu Dhabi-based businessman BR Shetty under the state initiative to improve the quality of manpower exports.
Mr Shibu Baby John said the Government would explore avenues for nurses in Latin America. Kerala, which once dominated the export of caregivers, now faced stiff competition from the Philippines.
Gulf-bound nurses are taught English and Arabic. “We are considering another centre in Kochi and including functional Spanish in the curriculum,” said Mr Baby John. Recruits had completed a 90-day advanced nursing training programme on the NICE campus; one of them cleared the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) licensing exam. The rest are appearing for the test soon.
Mr Sudhakar Jayaram, the head of SUT Hospital here and BR Academy, said the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) training was being incorporated in NICE curriculum in association with British Council.
The move was on for tie-ups with other international hospitals in other GCC countries. He expected offer letters from other GCC countries to arrive soon and appreciated the Kerala Government initiative in identifying challenges faced by nursing professionals in the Gulf market and offering the right solution in equipping them to serve in international hospitals.
The training for the second batch of 26 students progressed smoothly at NICE. Entrance tests for third batch are scheduled for February 27, March 12 and 26.
