Germany welcomes Vietnamese nurses

According to the study, fully 61% of nursing-care facilities have job vacancies, with each having on average 4.3 unfilled positions. A full three out of four of facilities with job vacancies described the search for suitable skilled employees as difficult.

The study also shows that establishments in the industry have actively sought to recruit employees internationally as one of the alternative strategies to fill this critical worker shortage.

Over the last three years, the country in which German nursing-care companies have most often sought workers is Spain. A total of 61% of all companies with international-recruitment experience have been active there.

For those companies that have engaged in recruitment efforts outside the EU, activities are split mainly between Eastern European countries (Bosnia Herzegovina, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova) and Asian countries (China, Philippines, Vietnam).

"Given the nursing-care needs for not only the nursing care segment but the health care industry as a whole in Germany, the opportunities for Vietnamese nursing candidates and nurses has never been greater,” said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh.

Mr Quynh, who is the head of the Foreign Labour Management Department of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said the need has resulted in the expansion of nurse training programs for Vietnamese candidates.

In 2013, MoLISA in collaboration with the German partners initiated a nurse training program. For the program, 125 candidates aged 21-25 were selected to take a six-month conversational German language course at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi.

After successfully completing the language course the candidates were approved for training in Germany under a two-year nursing assistant and a three-year practitioner program.

All of the candidates successfully completed their training with the three-year course concluding last October, said Mr Quynh.

Each of the candidates, he said, now reside and work in Germany as fully trained and qualified nursing assistants or practitioners in health care facilities, earning a monthly salary ranging from US$2,250-US$2,900 (VND50-VND65 million).

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany and MoLISA last July agreed to expand the training program to 200 nursing candidates. Like the first program qualified candidates must be aged 21-25.

The conversational German language training provided by the Goethe Institute in Hanoi was lengthened to a nine-month course with the length of all of the training in Germany extended to three years.

Substantially all of the fees for visas and travel to Germany, said Mr Quynh, are paid for by either the German government or the nursing facilities and candidates receive a US$900 per month stipend to cover costs of living and other ancillary expenses during their training.

After successfully completing their training the nurse practitioners will earn a monthly salary of US$2000-$2,260 working and residing in Germany.

Mr Quynh said there are tremendous opportunities for Vietnamese nursing candidates both in training and future employment in Germany for those who are willing to reach out and seize the opportunity.