More overseas job opportunities coming for allied healthcare workers

Nadine Wilson-Harris, Staff Reporter

The window of opportunity for allied healthcare workers to access jobs locally, in Canada, the United States and other territories has been expanded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between a local training institution and the Mona Ageing and Wellness Centre.

The centre, headed by Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer, has partnered with the Strategic Management and Training Consultants Limited (SMTC) Career Institute to develop and deliver an advanced patient-care technician training course that will provide healthcare services to individuals at all levels, but particularly the ageing population.

“Patient care, particularly of older persons, is becoming increasingly important. Older persons are now much more active, much more independent, and the choices of long-term care for most of them are at home. That will not rule out the fact that they will need assistance,” Eldemire-Shearer said.

“We are talking a lot, especially in COVID about the job market, about the need to revive the economy, and this partnership with Canada is going to be a tremendous opportunity, not just for the persons that will go, but for the families back home who will benefit from having employment abroad,” she noted.

The one-year programme is designed to expand the traditional role of the nursing assistant, as it will provide them with technical knowledge and occupation-specific patient-care skills.

Principal at the SMTC Career Institute, Beverley Dinham Spencer, shared that six courses will be offered overall, including the patient-care technician programme, which will begin in October.

“We have to emphasise in nursing, in caregiving, it is not only the theory, but the practical is very, very important,” she said.

Her organisation has forged a partnership with ILDS International Employment Agency that will facilitate the placement of graduates both locally and overseas.  

“We are looking forward to delivering well-trained students early in 2021 that they will have an opportunity to be placed in various international organisations," she said.

Managing director of the ILDS International Employment Agency, Kimika Lawrence, said the jobs will benefit families and, by extension, the economy.

“We know that, unfortunately, the job market in Jamaica is unable to facilitate all persons, whether they are university graduates [or] technically skilled trained personnel,” she said.

The company has been providing employment opportunities for years in Asia and is looking forward to expanding into other territories.

“We rest at ease knowing that the standard of training that our Jamaicans will receive from SMTC, along with the Mona ageing centre, will be up to par and to the standards that will be required by our Canadian employers,” said Lawrence.

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