Recruiting Trainees from Viet Nam (Triple Win Nurses)
Project description
Title: Triple Win Nurses – Recruitment of Trainees from Viet Nam
Commissioned by: German hospitals and nursing homes
Country: Viet Nam
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA)
Overall term: 2019 to 2023
Context
The need for qualified professionals in Germany's nursing sector has been growing for a number of years. At present, some 40,000 nursing posts are vacant. In a context of changing demographics, this situation is set to worsen in the years ahead. The number of people in need of care in Germany currently stands at around 3.4 million, and experts estimate that this number is rising. An additional 200,000 nurses will likely be needed by 2030.
This need cannot be completely met by local workers, nor by personnel from other EU Member States. Therefore, recruiting qualified professionals from third-party states is an attractive strategy for meeting the growing need for nursing staff.
Given its very young population, Viet Nam has huge labour potential and a surplus of qualified professionals in the nursing sector. The Vietnamese government is aware of the advantages of vocational work experience abroad (for example, transfer of know-how and remittances to the country of origin) and therefore expressly supports labour mobility for healthcare professionals.
Objective
Vietnamese trainees alleviate the lack of qualified professionals in the healthcare and nursing sector in Germany. Unemployment in Viet Nam falls. At the same time, remittances and knowledge transfers to Viet Nam contribute to its development objectives.
Approach
Together with the International Placement Services (ZAV) of the German Federal Employment Agency and the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour (MOLISA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is placing nursing trainees in hospitals and nursing homes in Germany.
The project is based on the notion of “Triple Win”, as everyone involved benefits:
- For Germany and the German nursing sector, the recruitment of highly motivated trainees from Viet Nam opens up new prospects for a forward-looking human resources policy.
- The trainees from Viet Nam benefit from the agreement made with Viet Nam to cooperate in the area of training as they gain long-term employment prospects in Germany, whereas in their home country they face high unemployment rates after completing their training.
- The Vietnamese state benefits from the transfer of know-how and remittances, while the surplus of young nursing professionals in the country ensures their departure will not have a negative impact on development policy in Viet Nam.
From the start, the project provides direct support to the Vietnamese trainees and their training institutions and vocational schools in Germany. During the twelve-month German course in Viet Nam, mentoring by the Triple Win staff lays the foundations for the culture of welcome. In Germany, GIZ assists the trainees during the first week as they settle in and complete the administrative formalities to ensure they feel at home from the outset in their new environment. The training institutions and vocational schools also receive help in overcoming this new challenge, for example in the form of organisational support and intercultural preparation seminars. During the entire first year of training, the Triple Win team supports the trainees and training organisations as competent and dependable partners.
In addition to more than 20 years of cooperation with its partner country Viet Nam, GIZ’s expert knowledge is based first and foremost on the experience and success of the pilot project to recruit trainees for the German nursing sector that it implemented from 2013 to 2019 on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).
Results
More than 350 young people came to Germany as a result of this pilot project on behalf of the BMWi. Under the Triple Win Viet Nam project, up to 350 individuals from Viet Nam will complete a nursing course in Germany. The first 84 persons began their training in autumn 2020. Furthermore, 180 project participants are currently preparing for their future as trainees in Germany.
In a survey of previous participants in the pilot project, 75 per cent of the respondents stated that they wished to work in Germany for the next ten years or more. The personal success stories and great satisfaction of the training organisations and employers bear witness to the potential of this long-term, forward-looking recruitment strategy for the German nursing sector.