Kochi: The Occupation English Test (OET), designed to meet the specific English needs of healthcare professionals globally, has a system to detect, investigate, and ban from the test the scamsters out to manipulate it, Chief Experience Officer Marco Delgado has said.

“Frauds are taking place. The nurses in Kerala are its victims. We are taking stern security steps to stop issues like leakage of question papers,” Marco Delgado told Manorma.

OET, conducted by the Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment Trust (CBLA), which is a joint venture of Cambridge English and Boxhill Institute in Australia, is an international English language test that assesses the language proficiency of healthcare professionals seeking to register and practice in an English-speaking environment globally. The trust conducts both the test and the training for it.

More nurses than doctors
Four out of six premium OET centres in India are in Kerala. They are in Kottayam, Angamaly, and Ernakulam. There are 17 centres in India, including 11 certified institutions. The trainers in premium centres are those directly trained by OET. Marco Delgado said.

More nurses than doctors are reaching foreign shores from India. In the case of other Asian countries, the doctors are ahead. This is because of the difference in salary, other compensations, living conditions, and facilities. Almost 2.5 lakh people appear for the exam in a year from India. Most of them are nurses, and 90 per cent of them are Keralites, he added.

OET Career, an online recruitment platform that seeks to enable healthcare professionals to spot better career opportunities, has been started, apart from giving training to health professionals in 165 countries.

Recruitment is taking place in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand based on the OET score. New Zealand and Australia are giving permanent residency now, Marco Delgado said.