Lower Austria extends Vietnam nursing programme for 110 more students

Lower Austria plans to bring 110 more nursing students from Vietnam to the Austrian state by 2032, after its government extended a training programme, ORF reports. The project is expected to cost about three million euros.

The programme began in 2023, bringing 150 students from Vietnam to Lower Austria. The first trainees in a nursing assistant course for Vietnamese students graduated early this year. After completing German lessons in Vietnam, they studied at the International Nursing Center in Krems, which works with IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems.

Seventy-five people from the first group are still in training, with their courses due to finish in February, May and September next year, Markus Golla, head of nursing science at IMC, said at a news conference in St Pölten on Tuesday.

Social Affairs Minister Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister said the programme would prioritise quality over numbers and that care homes should not be overwhelmed as they integrate graduates. She said Vietnamese staff were intended to support, not replace, local care workers. Golla said training standards were the same as for Austrian students.

Sixty-nine Vietnamese staff are already working in Lower Austria’s nursing and care centres. The main employment regions are the Waldviertel, Weinviertel and Thermenregion, said Elisabeth Bräutigam, head of the state health agency. She said the additional staff could help stabilise existing teams.

The ÖVP and FPÖ approved the extension in the state government on Tuesday. The SPÖ criticised the decision. Party leader and state minister Sven Hergovich called for better pay, reliable shift schedules, predictable time off and working conditions that support a healthy working life before public money is spent recruiting workers from abroad. Teschl-Hofmeister said measures had already been taken in those areas.

Hergovich also criticised the FPÖ for supporting the extension after opposing the original pilot project in 2022.