Health Cabinet Secretary (CS), Mutahi Kagwe yesterday launched the English language proficiency training programme at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) involving about 300 nurses.
The course which kicked off with 25 physical students and 250 others taking the learning virtually, will be completed in the next six weeks with an examination, before the first batch of 300 nurse’s flies out to the UK in mid-March.
“Moving forward, we are going to be sending thousands of nurses possibly to the UK and other parts of the world. This development is based on the good training and work ethic that our people have,” the CS said.
He said this has been made possible due to the co-operation with Labour and Education ministries, courtesy of a multiagency effort that prepared the government for this moment.
In July, Kenya reached an agreement with the UK to allow its unemployed health workers to serve in the UK’s National Health Service as part of a new arrangement between the two nations’ governments.
The deal, backed by Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, will see nurses and health workers in the East African nation without jobs given a “special route” to work in the UK for a fixed period.
Late last year only ten out of 300 health workers who applied for the jobs with the UK’s National Health Service passed the exams.
According to the British authorities, almost 900 Kenyans are working in the NHS in various capacities.
However, Kagwe revealed that only a minority of the first batch of nurses who recently applied qualified for the jobs.
