The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals Tehy says the provision of English-language training in particular is tantamount to providing foreign nurses in Finland with a transit pass to move on to more lucrative posts in places like Britain or Switzerland.
Many municipalities in Finland have embarked on recruitment drives to bring foreign nurses to fill the employee gap in their health care institutions.
Finland attracts dozens of foreign workers every year and that number is set to rise into the hundreds. But even that would not be sufficient to meet the labour shortage in the sector.
The need for foreign nurses will rise to thousands annually just to supply the nursing skills required. By the year 2025, the social and health care sector overall will need an estimated 20,000 to 60,000 new workers.
Government has earmarked a total of 20 million euros for labour migration programmes between 2007 and 2014, half of which has already been used.
- Sources : Yle, Sunnuntaisuomalainen
