The upcoming training in Germany prompted a change of policy at the World Health Organisation (WHO). For many years the WHO policy was that in developing countries with too few nursing staff no trained people of this trade should be taken up in developed or industrialized countries. Not even trainees should emigrate as not to provide an escape route for trained staff just by not showing there already achieved qualification. The aim was not to allow for any brain drain by qualified doctors of any skill drain by qualified nurses.

However when the Embassador of El Salvador in Germany, who initiated the program could prove to the WHO and German immigration authorities that there was more than a sufficient number of nurses in El Salvador but that they could just not taken on and paid by the health organization in Salvador, a change of policy started to happen. In this process several German ministries and authorities agreed to allow groups of trainees to enter Germany under a series of preconditions. Among these has been an agreement between the state of El Salvador and German Immigration Authorities for trained experts from abroad (ZAV).

Thus a long and cumbersome process started and was followed by all parties involved with great zest and good will. Now FORUM Berufsbildung is expecting the first group of trainees to arrive by the end of September 2019 and even a second group in 2020.

Once the trail is blazed there other countries and other training organizations in Germany to follow suit. There may be two kind of trainees for Senior citizen care now coming into Germany:

• School leavers who will undergo a full 3 years training in Germany and
• Trained nurses who will be scrutinized about their prior knowledge from their home country and will then undergo an adaptive training filling the gaps of competences stemming from different curricula and practical experiences

In both cases these students/trainees will have to acquire proven of German speaking on the standard level of B1 at least before entering Germany. For proceeding their training they will have to come up to level of B2.