Interest has increased in a new caregiving course on offer in Samoa that could be a path to permanent residency in Australia.
Ryman Healthcare's profit rose 8.4 percent Photo: 123RF
Twenty students, aged between their 20s and 50s, have completed an Australian community care qualification offered by the Bradford Insitute of Advanced Education programme.
Nineteen of them are now looking for jobs to care for the elderly in Brisbane.
The course also teaches skills to care for people with special needs, youth and domestic violence victims.
The Samoa-based director of the institute, Va'a Alofipo, said the plan was for all of them to find work in Australia where there was already a high demand for caregivers.
Samoans had a natural affinity for the work, he said.
"They have full respect for elderly and they have that connect to go that extra mile and help all those people in aged care,"Mr Alofipo said.
"Samoan people, they believe that respect has to be instilled in the life of every human being and they have that personality of love and care. So it suits them really well to the nature of the job."
The next course, which starts at the end of this month, already had 80 people applying for just 65 places, the director said.