SECONDARY school students who have been identified by the Labour Mobility Unit Work Ready Pool (WRP) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (MFAET) for aged care jobs in Australia have to pass a compulsory test provided by the APTC in Honiara.
After passing the Language and Numeracy test, they will undertake the Aged Care Preparatory Training Programme with APTC (Australia Pacific Training Coalition).
This was confirmed by the APTC Country Director for Kiribati and Solomon Islands Abigail Chang during a media briefing at APTC Kwaimani Building Skills Hub last week.
“Once they have been identified from the government WRP, they are identified by the Labour Mobility Unit and those names [will be] forwarded to APTC.
“When they are at the APTC, they will go through a second layer of assessment which is the APTC Language Literacy and Numeracy Test,” Ms Chang said.
This Language Literacy and Numeracy Test is an accredited training that the Australian Accredited Unit delivered students need to meet criteria for courses and the course that was delivered here is called the Aged Care Preparatory Training course,” she said.
MFAET Trade Commissioner Barett Salato said those secondary students (from Forms 5 to 7) have to pass the Language Literacy and Numeracy Test in order to be placed under the programme.
He added that in order for the students to be considered for the particular training programme, they would need to be identified and be registered through the WRP.
“The full qualification for the aged care training programme is the Certificate III Individual Support Home Aging Care.
“In order to be eligible for this particular qualification, apart from doing language literacy and numeracy tests, there needs to be a vocational knowledge assessment undertaken and that will prove your ability experience in Home Aging Care,” Mr Salato said.
By LACHLAN EDDIE HOE
Solomon Star, Honiara
