1,100 Indonesian applicants for 25 Australian PCW jobs
An Australian aged care operator has recruited 16 highly skilled Personal Care Workers (PCWs) after three days of intensive interviews in Jakarta under a new international recruitment program, Talent Connect.
Talent Connect is an initiative of Australian retirement living operator/developer, Living Well Senior Communities, which is based in Jakarta. It has been backed by the Australian Government's $40 million Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which supports trade and investment between Australian and Indonesia.
In total, 20 workers will graduate from the pilot this month, after 600 experienced RNs applied for the roles. The second cohort - of 25 - attracted 1,100 applicants.
The second cohort will graduate in June, and a third commences in August. It's hoped the program will continue with two intakes annually.
"Overwhelmed" by candidate quality
The workers selected are highly skilled and have aged care experience.
Ben Cass, President Director, Living Well Seniors Communities, told The Weekly SOURCE he has been "overwhelmed" by the candidates' quality.
"They're an extremely smart, highly skilled group of people," he said.
To qualify for the program, candidates must have an Indonesian RN qualification and aged care experience. Many have already worked in aged care overseas, usually in the Middle East or Western Europe, where Indonesia already has well established channels between aged care operators and recruiters.
The relatively higher salaries for aged care workers in Australia is a significant drawcard for Indonesian staff. RNs working in Indonesia earn $700 AUD per month, whereas as PCWs working in Australia earn up to $7,000 per month.
Selection for the program is a "life-changing event", not only for the candidate, but for their families, with some of the Australian salary often remitted back to family in Indonesia, Ben said.
Many of the staff are also interested in gaining their RN qualification in Australia.
The cost of the program to both workers and employers is around $10,000 per person. The workers pay for their own airfares, visas, health checks, health insurance, police checks, and English testing.
Five months' training
Once selected, students attend classes in Jakarta every day for up to five months, with teachers aides and course facilitators assisting. Trainers from the University of New England also attend classes in person in Jakarta throughout the training period. Students complete 120 compulsory hours of work experience at aged care facilities in Indonesia.
The workers arrive in Australia to work as PCWs holding Cert III qualifications.
They are be employed under Aged Care Industry Labour Agreements which grant employment for two years. Staff are linked to their employer as a condition of their visa.
Changing attitudes
Northern Territory aged care provider Not For Profit Australian Regional and Rural Community Services (ARRCS), which has six aged care homes across the NT and SA, has recruited the first 16 workers from the program, filling all their vacant positions.
Despite ARRCS' success, Ben sees "resistance" among Australian HR teams to overseas recruitment, with many believing it complicated and expensive.
However, recruiting through Talent Connect presents a more cost effective option than traditional workforce solutions, which generally rely on a costly recruitment process and high levels of agency employment, says Ben.
Talent Connect's process is efficient for recruiters with interviews conducted in a matter of days and immigration agents and lawyers taking care of visas.
And the quality of staff hired is high, having been carefully vetted and trained.
"Australian aged care operators are going to have to go down this pathway," says Ben.
"I think a lot of HR teams are still hoping that there'll be a sudden interest amongst Australians to be aged care workers. That's not going to happen.
"We're lucky enough to be on the doorstep of the fourth biggest country on earth, the largest economy in ASEAN, where we have an oversupply of Bachelor qualified, highly skilled nurses in Indonesia who can go through our program, cheaply and quickly, and with high quality candidates, solving a lot of Australia's recruitment needs."
