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| The trainees listen to Alfredo Palmiery, founder of Concorde International Human Resource Corp. descrube polans for their training programs. With him is Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch manager of Active Global which organized the training, |
By Vir B. Lumicao
A Manila employment agency and its partner training academy
here are trying to get the Philippines ’
Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) to come to Hong Kong to assess their caregiver graduates so they can
get NCII certificates.
These certificates would place Filipino graduates of a six-month
comprehensive training in elderly care better-placed to capture the growing
demand for caregivers in Asia , said Alfredo
Palmiery, founder of Concorde International Human Resource Corp.
Palmiery was guest speaker at the graduation on Dec 2 of 100
Filipinas who finished the training course offered by his agency’s partner, Active
Global Specialised Caregivers (Hong Kong ) Pte
Ltd.
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| Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch manager of Active Global, Labour Attache Jalilo dela Torre, and guest speaker Alfredo Palmiery |
Labatt Dela Torre congratulated the graduates, telling them
that enrolling in skills development such as caregiving is better than joining
beauty pageants that debase Filipino women and drive them to debt.
He took a shot at a pageant in a nearby pub in Wanchai two
Sundays earlier that he described as commoditizing Filipina helpers. That is
not the image that Filipinas should project in Hong Kong ,
he said.
Meanwhile, Palmiery said affluent Asian countries are
fuelling demand for caregivers, thus the need for domestic workers to upgrade
their skills to fill the need.
“It’s very important that (the graduates) will be able to
get their NC II certificates and we are arranging that the Tesda people will
come to Hong Kong to conduct the NCII assessment,” said Palmiery.
“It’s not only foretold that our caregivers will be in great
demand in Japan , China , Singapore US and Europe where old people are sent to homes for the aged.”
Demand for caregivers, especially in Asia ,
is bound to grow because the elderly population is growing and more and more
families need stay-in caregivers, he said.
Steven Chiu, Hong Kong branch
manager of Active Global, said an NCII certificate would be the “holy
grail” for Filipina caregivers.
He said Active Global started the course in 2015 for nurses
from India , Sri Lanka and the Philippines
to work as caregivers in Hong Kong .
“This is our ninth batch already, each batch takes about
five months to six months, since 2015. We are actually the first to start this
course because no other charities or companies are offering comprehensive
caregiver training courses on a weekend basis for migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong ,” Chiu told The SUN in an interview.
He said Active Global is a nursing employment agency that brings
in nurses from the three countries to take care of patients in Hong Kong on domestic worker visa.
He said these workers do not pay agency fee and receive a higher
salary than maids.
For domestic helpers in Hong Kong ,
the company trains them to take care of the elderly. Tuition for the five to
six-month, 16-session course is $2,200 payable in two installments.
Chiu said students get a nursing instruction every Sunday,
all the materials, uniforms, teaching materials included, as well as the combination
of theories and practice and practical lessons where they can learn anywhere
from blood pressure taking to taking care of elderly people and performing cardiopulmonary
resuscitation.
“We are using foreign domestic helper visa because Hong Kong does not grant a caregiver visa, but if it decides
later to give a caregiver visa, that will be great,” he said.
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