CAREERS

Health crucial for future

By GIBSON GEORGE TORASO
IF the Government is serious about making PNG a rich black nation then it needs a healthy population to make that happen, according to Papua New Guinea Nurses Association general-secretary Gibson Siune.
During the accreditation of PNG Computer and Health Science School of Nursing in Port Moresby recently, Siune doubted how government’s policy of taking back PNG could be realised without a healthy population.
Siune said to take back PNG needed a healthy population and to nurture that population needed more nurses and health workers.
“We need a healthy population and for it to happen, we need to have professional nurses who will care about people’s health,” he said.
“To treat people from womb to tomb – when a child is born and when people are dead – only professionally trained special people can do that and can become nurses to care for people’s health because God made man so now God chooses people who will serve his people.”
The presentation of accreditation license was witnessed by parents, students, representatives from the Departments of Health and Higher Education, church health services, stakeholders, and other guests.
PNG Nursing Council registrar Dr Nina Joseph said a competent and registered nursing institution would produce officers to work professionally with care to save lives.
The registrar said the nursing council was one of the three regulatory bodies of the health department that operate under the Medical Registration Act 1980.
She said the council recognised the college because it met requirements to train nurses and health workers.
“Institutions must train our young people well so they would provide the best care possible,” she said, adding that institutions must also meet the “training and clinical practices standard so that students are qualified before serving our communities.
“Only qualified health workers can contribute to a healthy population that would contribute to the growth of the country.”
Joseph congratulated the college, its board, staff and students.
The college started enrolment in 2018 with 46 pioneer students studying full time in three diploma programmes.
For it to be recognised, the college had been working hard to meet the standard required of a nursing school to produce nurses and health workers. It will graduate its first batch this year.
Deputy principal Moses Tepra said more health workers were needed to meet the demand for health services because of the increasing population.
Tepra, who has 25 years of experience with 13 as a trainer in various nursing colleges, said there was a widening gap between number of health workers and the population.
“The ratio is one nurse to about 20,000 people,” he said.
“The number of nurses in the country is limited.
“They are stretched and they work extra.
“So, actually, this college will produce nurses and health workers to fill that gap.”
Christian health services chief executive officer Ulch Tapia said the country was facing a crisis with the aging health workforce.
“The aging workforce is a challenge for the country and the government to think about,” he said.
“There needs to be a change and we are on the right path to meeting that challenge.
“We need special people to make special things happen and that’s when a qualified nurse or a health worker comes in.”
Director Jeffrey Jerry said the college had worked with the Higher Education department since 2018.
“There has been criticism of fake certificates, fake school and so on, but no, we are now recognised,” a delighted Jerry said.
“We know this time would come. We have been working very patiently and expecting this time – a time when we would be recognised.
“Pioneer students and teachers have been so patient for too long but now we will move forward as an institution.”
Jerry said in the long run the college would help its students find jobs.
“Our motto is from zero to hero – to fill students with the right culture and attitude to serve,” he said.
“With a huge gap in the health sector workforce, our aim is to fill that gap. To build students physically, economically and spiritually as nursing is a noble profession that required holy approach.”
The newly established nursing college plans to set up its main campus at 9-Mile outside Port Moresby.

Writing a CV? Ask Harold!

One of the main challenges he faces is experience that a lot of companies are asking for as the main requirement for job entry

By JAMIE AHRO
NEW York Times best-selling author, Cameron West once said: “The most gratifying part of a job is helping people. It always makes your heart light and makes you feel much better.”
A business management lecturer had a similar situation when he founded a volunteer employment agency based in Goroka to help new graduates out from colleges and universities.
Harold Malken from Wingei village, Yangoru in East Sepik founded the Graduate Job Link Agency focused on developing a customised curriculum vitae (CV) and job application package to meet graduates’ job application needs, while working as a lecturer at the Goroka Technical College.
“Graduates go through a lot of hurdles in their first to enter the job market. This is because they are not prepared during their formal education,” Malken said.
“Tertiary institutions only train graduates to diploma and degree level and fail to provide a missing link, and that is to train students on how best they can structure their job applications and CVs,” he added.
When he started teaching at Goroka Technical College in 2017, he started noticing his students trying to write good CVs and job applications for employment.
This brought back memories of his youth days after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Management at the University of Papua New Guinea in 2011 and importantly, how hard it was to secure his first employment.
“After I identified the need of writing marketable CVs for graduates, I conducted a research through various mediums such as the internet and most importantly through my contacts/friends who are working as human resource officers and managers as well as other functional managers in both private and public sector organisations.
“One of them was to specifically identify what graduates would need without paid job experience to succeed in their job search.”
Two years on after observation and willing to help graduating students, in 2019 he founded the Graduate Job Link Agency and began conducting his first session of training in Goroka to up skill graduates to write good CVs for employment.
“After I gathered the information from the research conducted, I arranged the information by integrating it into different parts of the CV and conducted my first training in April 2019.
“Additionally using my six years of industrial experience in which I spent two years working as a HR officer with various organisations including the Police Department, SP Brewery and China Railway Construction and Engineering.”
As a result of this by the year 2020, he got about five positive responses from the first 30 students who attended his first training and trialed out his CV samples. He said since this programme started, he has seen not only university/college graduates participate but also high school dropouts who wished to look for employment.
This motivated him to enhance the CV package to include six features including: Explanation of CVs from the employer perspective, job-dedicated CVs, interview questions, their corresponding reasons and answer guides, interview preparation strategies, post-sale services like editing of letters and CV, doing mock interviews and providing practical job application sessions.
Harold said normally the CV training would take four to six hours per day. The first two hours from 9 am – to 11 am are used to explain different parts of the CV from the perspective of the employer while the next two to four hours are taken up to run through the application of job dedicated CVs, interview preparation strategies and practical job application sessions.
“Apart from that, I conduct mock interviews as part of the post-sale service. This means once a graduate gets registered by attending my training or paying the registration fees and communicating virtually (phone, WhatsApp and email) and in the event they are shortlisted for an interview, I conduct mock interviews by phone and get them ready for the real interview the next day.
“This is because interviews for first-timers are very nerve-racking, and as such, I have come up with this idea to get graduates prepared before they go in for the real interview.” He added.
In addition, Harold said, “understanding that graduates do not have a lot of paid job experiences so when conducting trainings, there are different strategies provided to cover for experience as the main requirements for job entry.”
One of the main challenges he faces is experience that a lot of companies are asking for as the main requirement for job entry.
“There are lots of challenges like wantok system and nepotism, one thing graduates should know is that the probability of their employment depends also on how best they can market themselves in a CV and cover letter and constantly applying for jobs.”
He has been conducting his CV writing skills for graduates in Goroka, Lae, Madang, and Port Moresby with the help of his current and former students.
“Because I have full-time employment as a lecturer at Goroka Technical College, I fully use the holiday periods as per the education calendar to conduct the training with help of my volunteers of which many of them are my current and former students.”
Despite using the registration fees to meet all aspects of the operations or conduct sessions. He said out of the 500-plus graduates who attended his training, more than a quarter of the total have received formal employment with both public and private sector organisations.
Harold feels that CV writing is still not enough for his service to humanity and has recently introduced small-medium enterprise (SME) training for beginners. He is conducting this trainings using his own personal experience as a former Bank South Pacific (BSP) pioneer SME lending officer from 2012 – 2015.
This is to ensure the SME training will also give a self-employment option for graduates so that they can participate in government-funded SME programmes through BSP and the National Development Bank (NDB).
“Traditionally in schools, the idea is to train students and get them into employment according to their own field of studies. However, due to unemployment problems in the country, that cannot meet the surge of graduates leaving schools annually.”
Harold and his volunteers recently conducted a two-day training with more 60 participants who joined in Goroka.
It is his wish to see graduates formally employed become self-employed, be their own bosses, drive their own cars, and sign their own cheques.
Meanwhile, another Graduate Job Link’s session will be held in July in the main centres including Goroka, Lae, Kimbe and Port Moresby.
Harold is calling on the Government through the Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology or other potential sponsors to engage in such programmes to make it compulsory so that Graduate Job Link can provide this training to final year students about to leave colleges and universities annually.