Even if the problem of who pays the transition fees were solved, would there be enough qualified domestic workers to meet increasing demand?
The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) recently reported that as of this year, Taiwan had 44,346 people trained as caregivers. More than 4,100 are employed at government institutions and with civil groups that offer home care services, and 9,926 are employed at homes for the elderly, it said.
To ensure an adequate number of caregivers in the proposed long-term care system, the council has budgeted NT$173 million (US$5.1 million) to train another 32,000 caregivers from last year to 2011, the CLA report said.
Tseng Min-chieh (曾敏傑), vice president of the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders and an associate professor at National Taipei University’s Department of Social Work, is concerned that the training may not go as smoothly as officials expect.
About a decade ago, Taiwan was faced with widespread unemployment among blue-collar workers because many businesses shifted their production to countries with cheaper labor such as China, Tseng said. Back then, the government had also planned to train the unemployed to help them become caregivers.
However, training unemployed blue-collar workers was not as easy as government officials hoped. Many workers had a hard time adjusting to their new jobs after working in factories or construction sites for half a lifetime.
“Now, with so many white-collar workers thrown out of work, it may be even harder for them to adjust to a new job as a caregiver,” he said.
RSS