Australia has a healthcare workforce problem.
It also has people who could help solve it.
The frustrating part is that some of those people already have the qualifications, clinical experience and professional ambition Australia needs. What they do not always have is the particular English language test result required to get through the next regulatory or educational gate.
That is the problem a new partnership between ILSC Language Schools Australia, Pearson and Refugee Education Australia (REA) is trying to tackle through the Language & Exam Access Program for Health, or LEAP for Health.
And it is a useful reminder that English language education is not simply about improving someone’s ability to order a coffee, write an essay or pass a university entrance requirement. For some students, English proficiency is the final piece of a much larger professional puzzle.
From English test to healthcare career
LEAP for Health is aimed at refugees and migrants who are planning to study, currently studying, or have completed an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)-regulated health program and need an approved English language test result to study, register or practise.
The program covers all 15 AHPRA-regulated health professions, including medicine, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy and dentistry.
That makes the initiative considerably more interesting than a conventional English preparation program.
The objective isn’t simply to produce a better English test score. It is to get qualified people across a very specific professional threshold.
REA CEO Sally Baker puts the problem bluntly, pointing to projections of a shortage of 123,000 nurses by 2030.
“At the same time,” she argues, “thousands of people with health training and clinical experience are being kept out of the workforce by a language testing requirement that isn’t keeping pace with the complexity of their situations”.
There is a bigger policy question sitting underneath that observation.
How much healthcare talent is Australia leaving on the sidelines because people cannot navigate the final administrative and language hurdles attached to professional recognition?
Targeted preparation, rather than generic English
The LEAP for Health model brings together three organisations with different roles.
ILSC provides accepted applicants with a free English placement assessment and six weeks of online English language test preparation.
Pearson provides discounted Pearson Test of English (PTE) testing at the end of the preparation program, with the test administered by REA as part of LEAP for Health.
The program also creates a peer community, allowing participants to connect with others who have experienced similar challenges during their resettlement in Australia.
That last element is easy to overlook.
For someone trying to rebuild a professional career after forced migration, the challenge is rarely just grammar or vocabulary. There is navigating Australian institutions, understanding professional expectations, rebuilding confidence and, potentially, trying to re-enter a profession in which they were already experienced in another country.
As ILSC Education Group’s National Academic Director, ELICOS & Pathways, Alison McDonnell, notes, preparation needs to reflect the particular format and expectations of the test.
And in healthcare, language has an additional dimension.
Communication isn’t simply an assessment criterion. It can directly affect patient safety, professional relationships and clinical outcomes.
That makes targeted preparation particularly important.
A role for ELICOS beyond the classroom
There is also an interesting message here for the English language sector.
ELICOS has spent years talking about pathways. Usually, that means the pathway from English language study into vocational education, higher education or employment.
LEAP for Health takes that concept a step further.
The pathway isn’t really:
English → more study → maybe a job.
It is:
existing skills and professional experience → English preparation → professional recognition → healthcare workforce.
It also demonstrates why the value of English language education can be difficult to capture through simple measures of student numbers or course enrolments. Sometimes the real outcome is what happens after the student leaves the classroom.
For a qualified nurse, doctor, pharmacist or physiotherapist, six weeks of targeted preparation could potentially represent the difference between remaining outside their profession and getting back into the workforce.
ILSC’s refugee support expands
For ILSC, the partnership builds on existing work supporting refugees.
Since 2023, its Australian schools have offered a Humanitarian Scholarship providing general English study to humanitarian visa holders.
LEAP for Health adds a much more targeted professional dimension to that support.
Catherine Hamilton, ILSC Education Group’s National Manager of Student and Community Engagement, says refugees and migrants deserve the same opportunities to develop confidence, connections and cultural understanding while working towards their career and settlement goals.
That is where the partnership becomes bigger than an English testing initiative.
It sits at the intersection of education, migration, settlement and workforce policy.
Australia has spent considerable energy attracting international health professionals and trying to address shortages across the healthcare system. At the same time, there are migrants and refugees already living here who may possess valuable qualifications and experience but face significant barriers to getting those skills recognised and put to work.
It seems an obvious place to look for untapped workforce capacity.
The test is only one part of the journey
None of this means English language testing requirements are unnecessary.
Healthcare professionals need to communicate effectively. Patients need to understand their doctors, nurses and other practitioners. Regulators have a legitimate responsibility to ensure professionals can communicate safely and effectively.
The question is whether the system can distinguish between maintaining high standards and creating unnecessary barriers.
Programs such as LEAP for Health do not lower the standard. Instead, they try to help capable people meet it.
Pearson’s PTE Stakeholder Relations Manager ANZ, Sue Rowlands, describes access to trusted English assessment as an important pathway to education, professional recognition and employment.
For participants in LEAP for Health, that pathway is potentially much more literal.
The English test is not the destination.
It is the bridge.
And if Australia really does face the scale of healthcare workforce shortages being projected, building better bridges for people who already have the skills could be one of the smarter investments the education and health sectors can make.
Because sometimes the workforce Australia is looking for isn’t overseas. It is already here.
