ICE launch nurse in Australia open days

A new push by the ICE Group, an Ireland-wide recruitment agency, has been launched to attract qualified nurses who wish to travel and work in Australia.

As part of the company’s recent Nursing Abroad Programme, the two open days on Thursday, January 10, and Thursday, January 17, will continue the successful recruitment drive, which is being run in conjunction with some of the leading hospitals in central Sydney.

The programme is designed to ensure that nurses planning to travel to Australia can do so in the knowledge that they will have secure employment with an immediate income, and free accommodation when they arrive in Sydney.

The programme has already attracted and placed a large number of suitable candidates, leading to the Sydney hospitals offering more positions.

By running the two open days simultaneously in their Dublin and Galway offices ICE Group are hoping to capitalise on the large number of nurses who after qualification wish to spread their wings while gaining valuable work experience overseas.

ICE Group National Recruitment Manager, Trish Kelly, said: “These open days are an opportunity for nurses to come in, chat with our consultants prior to meeting with representatives from the hospitals in Sydney in late January. We assess the candidates suitability as well as helping them to prepare for meeting the Australian representatives.”

In the period 2000-2001 almost 11,500 Irish people received the Australian Working Holiday visa, and the vast majority of these people do not have work or accommodation arranged in advance of their arrival.

“Nursing is an international qualification and Irish Nurses have been travelling to Australia for years, gaining valuable work and life experience. However many encounter delays and difficulties in securing employment and accommodation when they arrive. By having advance interviews in Ireland they can solve most of the hassle they would normally experience,” said Ms Kelly.

She said that the contracts, mostly three-month temporary placements, suited the majority of travellers to Australia who go to work and travel from place to place.

Aileen Fitzgerald, co-ordinator of the Nurse Abroad Programme said that the three-month contract offered nurses a perfect opportunity to get a start, to garner some experience and then after three months in Sydney to move on with that Australian experience in their CV.

The open days will run all day from 9am to 5.30pm on Thursday, January 10, and Thursday, January 15, at ICE Group’s offices in Galway and Dublin. (SP)