Sterile Technicians and Immigration Green list

Following on from the Governments announcement it needs to be noted that there are several processes to be gone through via the Ministry of Health before we can start employing technicians with overseas qualifications. The NZSSA executive has been contacted by the Ministry of Health with regards to this. Not all overseas qualifications are equal to the NZ level 4 certificate in sterilising technology which is a requirement for our technicians. Our qualification is an NZQA certified and recognised qualification. it is highly likely that any overseas applicant will have to have their  overseas qualification verified by NZQA before they can be employed as a qualified technician and have qualified technician pay scale. If the overseas qualification does not match the NZ qualification they can possibly still be employed but at a trainee level only. the Ministry of health are working through this now and will advise us of their decisions Shelagh Thomas President NZSSA