We’re delighted to further expand the work we do with refugee healthcare professionals through a new partnership with Talent Beyond Boundaries.
Talent Beyond Boundaries creates pathways which enable forcibly displaced people to work in countries where they can use their skills to create a secure future for them and their families.
Refugees have huge repositories of talent, knowledge and experience. However, many are in countries where have no right to work and where they have been locked out of international skilled migration systems.
By connecting refugees with employers around the world, Talent Beyond Boundaries are creating sustainable and durable pathways that benefit everyone concerned and transform the lives of millions displaced by war and persecution.
The UK has a significant shortage of nurses. There are approximately 40,000 unfilled posts at Band 5 and above. Hospitals, care homes and community services are stretched. UK healthcare employers are looking to overseas-qualified nurses as an essential part of their efforts to recruit staff.
Nurses who don’t speak English as a first language must demonstrate their ability to use English to give safe and effective care to patients before they can register in the UK. Most do this by taking the international OET Nursing English language test and achieving the grades set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
These grades - B in Listening, Speaking and Reading, C+ in Writing - are high and difficult to achieve without considerable support and preparation. SLC is the UK’s leading provider of OET Nursing preparatory courses to the NHS, working with multiple Trusts around the UK, including 75% of London.
We are delighted therefore to be able to help the refugee nurses supported by Talent Beyond Boundaries through our flagship online Reach OET B Nursing course. This course consists of 60 hours’ targeted paper-by-paper preparation, 4 live lessons a week, a library of past lessons, nearly 50 videos from senior teacher Jo Langford from SLC’s YouTube channel, and 2 practice tests.
So far, Talent Beyond Boundaries has helped over 40 refugee nurses relocate to work in the United Kingdom while around 50 more are in the process.
This programme builds on the work we do with refugee doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others through RefuAid, Maximpact, and the Lincolnshire Refugee Doctor Project among others. We hope very much that this is just the start a longer-term relationship with Talent Beyond Boundaries which enables us to support the incredibly important work they do.
