Company Description
Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating right-respecting labor mobility opportunities for people from low-income countries. We do this by working with multi-sector stakeholders to deliver innovative proof of concept solutions, provide technical assistance, and establish right-sized evidence for policy influence. This requires developing and carrying out projects across labor sectors and mobility pathways on a global level.
Job Description
The European Union (EU) faces well-documented workforce shortages, worsening as its population ages. Against this backdrop, the aged care sector is forecast to require significant workforce increases, which will not be met through domestic recruitment alone. Promoting effective and right-respecting labor mobility for foreign-born care workers can be part of the solution to these demographic projections and the scarcity of workers. If done ethically, it can also help families in low-income countries move out of poverty. While the skills needed to provide these services are similar across countries, differing qualification systems create a significant barrier to addressing this demand. This essential step remains a cumbersome process that significantly hinders employers' ability to hire internationally. From a policy perspective, changing or regulating such frameworks is a very lengthy process.
The main objective of this project is to support selected EU Member States in addressing workforce shortages in the aged care sector by developing a common competency framework and outlining a structured labour mobility scheme that aligns training and recruitment with sectoral needs. While examples of such frameworks exist for professionals at nursing level, and the specific role will be firmed up during the project, we anticipate focusing on an entry-level occupation such as Health-Care Assistants (HCA), which are in high-demand, offer career progression prospects and require lower training needs. Unlike highly regulated healthcare professions, HCAs do not benefit from EU-wide automatic qualification recognition, making them a practical starting point for a common competency framework. This approach allows for greater flexibility in training and recruitment, ensuring that workforce shortages can be addressed efficiently without unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.
This initiative presents a scalable and cost-effective solution to build mobility that protects the care sector from labor shortage shocks, migrant workers from abusive practices, and both sending and destination governments from migration management hiccups. The project is both timely and strategic, addressing gaps in workforce planning, training alignment, and qualification transparency. The creation of a reference framework and the design of a labor mobility scheme are not only critical deliverables - but they are also steppingstones for longer-term institutional cooperation between partner countries and EU stakeholders in aged care.
