Sarath Wijesinghe President’s Counsel former Ambassador to UAE and Israel

It is a Trained Important and Useful Profession

World is in need of caregivers and skilled labour and employees in other areas that brings dollars to their respective countries. Care giver producing countries require much needed foreign currency including Sri Lanka immersed in the dollar crisis. Our workers are educated committed and respected and it is time to explore the world of employment opportunities. Today opportunities are opened to the skilled and educated labour and it is time for us to fill the Gap created in need of labour force in many countries. You are advised to browse the net for jobs overseas.

Care givers are trained professional giving care, and looking after the elderly sick and disabled. It is a profession that needs proper training and certification by recognized institutions. Elderly, sick, and disabled need care and assistance when loved ones are unable to help them. Now the elderly population is growing faster with sick and disable needs care and assistance care giving has become a fast growing and lucrative erosion. State has come forward to assist the elderly and needs as a duty by themselves to the population and there are arrangements by local authorities and employers of the needs have adopted measures to adopt schemes to help the inmates in care homes. Those who have contributed for insurance schemes, accrued salaries including provident funds, and left with funds and properties need care givers to spend the rest of life with comforts and proper medical attention. It is a useful profession as looking after elders is a civic duty and a duty of the governance. In developed countries such as UK, Japan, EU, and Israel the scheme is organized and streamlined. In less developed countries it is a civic duty with some contributions from the state to needs and the home of the elders and institutions for elders and needy. Care giving is a skill developed by teaching and professional raining. World needs the skilled trained and educated, not unskilled with O/L A/L with no competence in English other languages or IT. Employment bureau and many private training centres are set p by the government and private sector which is the need of the hour today. Care is needed to the elderly, disabled and children and sick. It is provided by the state, individuals and organizations by trained staff. There are specialized hospitals and institutions cater them on voluntary and payment basis worldwide by trained and untrained. It is the duty of the governance to monitor, supervise and regulate the caregiving and caregivers which includes proper training.

Training Professionals to the Profession

Training is mandatory to be a caregiver and many other professions in most countries.  In Israel the candidate should be over 21 and a high school graduate, in addition to go through training in an institution and obtaining certification from the professional institution. In the United Kingdom the professional is more organised and professionalized. Caregiving institution as are regulated by the state and the professionals are trained and supervised by state and pirate institutions. This is the case in Japan, Europe and many developed countries, and even in less developed nations. Caregiving is stressful and needs training patience and human nature. Nurses are trained to treat and look after patients after having gone through an arduous course of studies including training. It is a merit to look after patients, elderly and needs based on any religion and there specialized agencies and groups set us and trained to treat and look after such as red cross, and similar organizations and voluntary and professional organizations to provide trained professionals as a service and for a payment. Organizations and institutions have set up institutions worldwide offering training personnel with competence and temperament to serve the making in need of assistance. In developed countries the professional services are expensive and the less developed countries have come forward to provide competent labour forces to the much needed group requiring help and assistance for a reasonable high payment, especially in countries where the life span is high. It is a trade that requires training to train skills when includes the need to train all skilled labour which is the need of the hour in any country when there is a great demand for skilled labour in every field. A young man with O/L, A/L or a graduate is no use to the employer unless trained and skilled. It is the duty of the individual and the governance to provide for this training which generates foreign exchange to the country.

Elderly and Disable population

Life span is high in countries such as japan, Israel, Europe and many with a high percentage of elderly population. In Europe, Japan and Israel the percentage of the elderly population is gradually increasing with a result the need of more and more care for the elderly, in addition to the patients that needs care part and full time, which is somewhat expensive in their standards when Asian and African labour force has come forward to fill the need. For reasons unexplained the elderly and disable population is gradually unceasing with rising need of more and more trained care givers. Due to medical blunders and health issues the disable population is dangerously in the rise with the rising of the life span due to the improvement of health care with NHS and UK population as a classic example, with Japan and Israel with high concentration of elderly population. Looking after elderly and disable is hard tiring and needs lot of patience which is needs considerable training and guidance. They need care and assistance especially when looking after full time 24 hour of the day when the stress is shared by the giver and taker equally, when long and professional taking is needed to avoid unfortunate situations. In UK nurses are converting to caregivers as it is lucrative and convenient with able and wealthy employers. Care homes in UK are assisted by the local authorities and very profitable. Care homes in Sri Lanka are mostly free managed by voluntary organizations. There are few private caregiving institutions managed for the retired, affluent and those with pensions and savings which is fast growing today. Nursing and caregiving is a lucrative and demanding profession in all parts of the world. Nurses in Sri Lanka is well trained educate smart but at times lacking in language and improved skills. Once thee requirements are fulfilled the wold will need our nurses and caregivers.

Employment offering countries and training schemes

Asia and Africa has come forward as leaders on providing employees, and many other emerging countries in the Eastern Europe has entered the team. Philippine is in the lead in providing employment to the world with 35% of the population in foreign employment trained by the state from the school as a home industry producing professionals, Nurses, caregivers, and minor employees to the world with their considerable knowledge of English and forwardness, followed by other Asian nations such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and African countries. India provides trained and untrained labour with the huge population and Sri Lanka too have come forward as friendly, hardworking and educated clan wining hearts and minds of the employer as hardworking, sincere, and friendly, with the potential of the industry taking off as lucrative and money making to the respective countries in need of much needed foreign currency. Some countries are needed foreign labour to manage their domestic affairs with an example of UAE with 18% of the native population is depending on the rest to manage the country with the powerful workforce, with the hospitability industry is fully dominated by the outside workers when the locals are in business with the newly founded Oil (in 1961 they found oil in Middle East) with the economic boom to attract foreign labour. Now the world needs foreign labour and less developed countries need the foreign currency for their economy, for Asian and African countries.

Training of Caregivers Worldwide

Most of the training has to be physical only few online as the training involved human contacts and human physiology and human contacts. English IT and other subjects could be taught online but not the actual training that needs human touch and handling. This is very professionally done in the UK and USA with proper standards through expensive of course followed by arduous regularization process supervised by state and professional institutions. Training is given by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and there are nearly 900 agencies registered with the Bureau to provide employment registered in the website. The Bureau    is expected to regularise, monitor, and look after the prospective employees and manage the training and employment schemes of the institution. The training offered by the SLEB is recognized by the employers, who depend on the institution for training and other professional dealings. In addition to the other private agencies SLEB is also engaged in training and recruitment of all sectors including caregiving. The salary of a caregiver according to the website is  Rs 573000/ which is NIS 5300 with an expenditures of Rs 3,50,000/ for which the candidate is entitled to a bank loan. The reputation of the agencies are not satisfactory with many complaints to the police on fraud disapprobation mistrust, and fraud, with some complains on the SLBFE on inefficiency and some complaints against individuals. Training institutions and schemes in other parts of the world is shown in websites which has access online. It is time on the genuine labour agencies and those who aspire to be agents to be strictly professional and honest to win over the prospective employers to generate much needed foreign currency for the country on employment. Country depend on the Bureau of employment as the main competent regulator it is the duty of the governance to encourage them to draw up programs with the private sector to trained skilled labour, when one million youth is wasting time as three wheel drivers mainly the school leavers looking for easy money with least effort which is a criminal waste of young talents when Israel every young man is an innovator self-employed with training from the training institutions.

Way forward with the way out to solve the Dollar Crisis and providing skilled labour to the world.

World needs skilled, educate and committed labour for their work force, with language abilities It and other skills which are easily acquired in Sri Lanka. Good news is new training centres are emerging and job opportunities are fast growing. For UK, USA, Japan, EU and even in Middle East only on skilled labour and professionals. What is requited is the need commitment and the opportunities for the trainee aspirants. Demand is so high by the world for skilled labour and we are unable to provide the requirements though the process and procedure for training is accessible available and affordable. We need vigorous campaign and it is the duty of the young to explore their mobiles that has the penetration of 110% of the population. It is the duty of the media and Employment Bureau to give vigorous publicity on this matter in all ways and means. Good news is that many countries are approaching us for skilled labour and it is the duty of the Embassies Ambassadors and the foreign Ministry to be active in this sphere. In Embassies the Employment Bureau comes under the Ambassador and they are the agents of the government to promote and communicate with the counters and employers in this endeavoured. The employer providing nation must provide properly trained staff wit given skills not to disappoint the receiving country. Israel pays high salaries for agriculture workers and the Sri Lankan side once provided unskilled in disciplined labour who organized strikes for extra facilities which disappointed the state and the employer which is only an example to be avoided. Let us learn from mistakes and sufferings and start a new leaf of life with a campaign for proper training and committed working population to bring lost prosperity to Sri Lanka. (The author of this article Ambassador Sarath Wijesinghe could be contacted on sarath7@hotmail.co.uk)