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01-10-2007, 03:45 PM
Date : 20 September 2007 2111 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/301046/1/.html
SINGAPORE: A new million-dollar healthcare training centre has opened at Jalan Bukit Merah.
The centre - the Healthcare Management International (HMI) Institute of Health Sciences - is introducing a new course to encourage more Singaporeans to become healthcare assistants.
This is to help correct the imbalance in the percentage of foreign and local assistants.
Trainees who take up the three month course, will have a portion of the course fees subsidised by the Workforce Development Agency for Singapore citizens and PRs.
One of the trainees, Mr Tan Kim Hwee, had worked in a factory for five years before taking on a job as a porter.
He decided to sign up for the course after observing a problem with foreign healthcare assistants.
He said: "When I was in hospital, I see there was a communication problem. And being sick, that can be quite taxing on the patient. You can see the frustration on their face."
So the course hopes to get more Singaporeans to use their language skills in such jobs.
The course is designed to tackle the shortage of healthcare assistants in Singapore.
HMI executive chairman, Dr Gan See Khem, predicts a shortage of at least 1,000 healthcare assistants.
Speaking at the launching of the centre, Dr Ng Eng Hen, Manpower Minister and Second Minister for Defence, said: "In economics, they will say there will be huge demand, and if you're the supplier, you are in a good position.
"That means you can also move up in your career because not only more people need healthcare, people will want higher standards of healthcare (too)."
The trainees will graduate with nationally recognised Workforce Skills Qualification Higher Certificate in Community and Social Services.
The centre hopes to train 100 healthcare assistants by the end of next year. Currently, only about 15 percent of such workers here are Singaporeans.
But even as the course hopes to gradually reverse the trend of having more Singaporean healthcare assistants than foreign ones, HMI recognises that any effort would take a few years to achieve. - CNA/ir
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/301046/1/.html
SINGAPORE: A new million-dollar healthcare training centre has opened at Jalan Bukit Merah.
The centre - the Healthcare Management International (HMI) Institute of Health Sciences - is introducing a new course to encourage more Singaporeans to become healthcare assistants.
This is to help correct the imbalance in the percentage of foreign and local assistants.
Trainees who take up the three month course, will have a portion of the course fees subsidised by the Workforce Development Agency for Singapore citizens and PRs.
One of the trainees, Mr Tan Kim Hwee, had worked in a factory for five years before taking on a job as a porter.
He decided to sign up for the course after observing a problem with foreign healthcare assistants.
He said: "When I was in hospital, I see there was a communication problem. And being sick, that can be quite taxing on the patient. You can see the frustration on their face."
So the course hopes to get more Singaporeans to use their language skills in such jobs.
The course is designed to tackle the shortage of healthcare assistants in Singapore.
HMI executive chairman, Dr Gan See Khem, predicts a shortage of at least 1,000 healthcare assistants.
Speaking at the launching of the centre, Dr Ng Eng Hen, Manpower Minister and Second Minister for Defence, said: "In economics, they will say there will be huge demand, and if you're the supplier, you are in a good position.
"That means you can also move up in your career because not only more people need healthcare, people will want higher standards of healthcare (too)."
The trainees will graduate with nationally recognised Workforce Skills Qualification Higher Certificate in Community and Social Services.
The centre hopes to train 100 healthcare assistants by the end of next year. Currently, only about 15 percent of such workers here are Singaporeans.
But even as the course hopes to gradually reverse the trend of having more Singaporean healthcare assistants than foreign ones, HMI recognises that any effort would take a few years to achieve. - CNA/ir