How Australian language requirements could damage international relations

Details

Created on Thursday, 15 December 2011 17:05

Written by Editorial staff

A leading medical authority has said that Australia could do more to improve the healthcare situation in neighbouring countries.

As part of their immigration visas, medical practitioners need to meet a high standard of English proficiency that is quite hard for some to attain - even though they only wish to enter the country for training purposes.

Director for International Child Health professor Trevor Duke gave a presentation to ABC Radio on December 14 on the potentially damaging effects that the decision could have on Australia's Asia-Pacific neighbours.

Duke asserted that the high level of English required by foreign medical practitioners to enter the country - an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of seven or higher - was proving to be a serious barrier.

"I know many people who have wanted to come to Australia for a year for part of their training, their advanced training, and they're competent English speakers, and yet they still haven't been able to get the high level that's required to the IELT's testing, despite the fact that they're coming to Australia to work in supervised training positions and that's obstructed them coming," said Duke.

"Australia could make a very substantial contribution to those countries and the training of medical graduates."

He continued to say that while he recognised the importance of clear communication in the medical field, many of the interested parties were not able to afford the months of English coaching required to reach the high standards

This situation continued despite the fact that the affected parties would only be entering the country to gain more experience, rather than start a career.

Previously the DIAC would only accept results from the IELTS - however from November 5 an additional five language measures were added to the list of equivalent standards, but only for international students.

These include the Pearson Test of English Academic, the Cambridge English: Advanced test, the Occupational English Test and both variants of the Test of English as a Foreign Language - the paper- and internet-based tests.

However, these changes do not apply to the migration visas that can be used by a majority of visiting trainee doctors - they are still subject to the IELTS requirements in the same way that qualified medical practitioners are regardless of the length of their stay.

Duke added: "...this is a contribution that Australia really could be making that we're not making because of these regulations.