Nurses flock to UK

NEU Professionals Limited, an international healthcare recruitment agency headquartered in London, was formed in 2013 with the specific aim to help support NHS Trusts and Health Boards with the recruitment of nurses from overseas. According to BONU secretary for International Affairs Pinkie Mpinba-Joseph, their partnership with NEU will see Batswana have it easier to work abroad. “The UK has a prerequisite for one to take and pass an English test for them to work there. Our nurses have been struggling as some do not have money while others have money but do fail. The partnership will see NEU pay for the nurses’ English tests as well as train them to be ready to take up their jobs,” she said.

Mpinba-Joseph said for a long time they have been trying to get Batswana nurses to be exempted from writing the English test. She said they argued that just like South Africans are exempted from writing the test, it should be the case with Batswana as they are also educated in the English-medium. “We tried so many times in the past to facilitate this but we failed.