The Hindu Business Line : First finishing school for nurses to be inaugurated on Saturday

THE Union Minister for Non-Resident Affairs, Mr Jagdish Tytler, will on Saturday inaugurate a finishing school for overseas-bound nurses and other jobseekers being promoted by the Department of Non-resident Affairs (Norka).

The finishing school is co-promoted by the Kochi-based SCMS Group of Institutions and is located at Kalamassery in suburban Ernakulam.

Announcing this to newspersons here, the Chairman, Norka, Mr M.M. Hassan, said the Norka-SCMS Institute of Paramedical and Development Studies has been set up along the lines of similar ones in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The first of its kind in the country, the school will train nurses on conducting themselves in overseas locations and also help spruce up communicative skills.

It is estimated that the US alone will require 1.64 lakh nurses over a period of the next 12 months. The UK will need another 27,000, Germany 32,000 and Australia 33,500.

According to Mr Hassan, Norka has plans to train students for various qualifying examinations such as the CGFNS (Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools), IELTS (International English Language Testing System), NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination), TOFEL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test).

Those seeking jobs in the service sector also will be considered.

The finishing school will progressively seek to impart training to those seeking employment as housemaids abroad. They will be adapted to the lifestyle in the countries where they are seeking to employ themselves, brought to terms with assorted rules and regulations and given a low-down on places of interest.

Norka has also decided to set up, during the month-end, the third attestation centre for whetting documents of those seeking jobs in the UAE.

Such centres are already operating out from Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

Mr Hassan also announced that a conference of non-resident Indian with roots in the State, non-resident Keralites and expatriates who have since returned home would be held during the first week of August. Organisations working for NRK welfare can send in five representatives each to the conference. A delegate fee of Rs 1,000 would be charged per head for `Samavayam', Rs 500 for `Samanvayam' and Rs 250 for `Samagamom', three separate sessions.

Norka will take this opportunity for formally handing out identity cards to non-resident Keralites. The identity cards will help the bearer to get priority treatment while seeking service in Government Departments and public sector undertakings. The card has been a long-pending demand of the non-residents.

An insurance scheme would be launched for the benefit of Keralites who have returned from service abroad. Being rolled out with the assistance of United India Insurance Co Ltd, the scheme is meant for those below the poverty line. Individuals who pay up a premium of Rs 120 would be entitled to medical treatment for a particular amount for a period of one year while the indigent will medical cover not exceeding the equivalent of Rs 3,000 for a premium of Rs 300. Norka will pay up the first premium, Mr Hassan said.

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