03 Apr Uniteam Healthcare Services – Sharing Experiences
We still recall the excitement when our CVs were approved by the employer in Germany, and we successfully passed the online interviews before signing our contract of employment
After a long waiting period to have our applications and qualifications approved by the relevant authorities in Germany, we were finally told to get ready for our departure to Germany in mid- August 2022.
Over four months have passed since then and at the time of writing this article, we have been living in Germany for nearly half a year.
Many things have happened since then, challenges were to be mastered, we had to adjust, learn hard, get used to the German winter climate, to different food, but all of us are still here and we are encouraging each other. It also helps us a lot that the people of Marburg are friendly, polite and helpful – we did not expect such a level of hospitality and we are very thankful for such a warm welcome.
After the first block of theory studies, we started our practical training in the clinic and were integrated in the teams on the hospital wards. We found it good that we have the practical training right after the theory block. In that way we cannot forget what we learned by transferring our theoretical knowledge into practice. Everybody received us with friendliness, but we quickly realised that daily routines are demanding and require our full attention and concentration.
Our biggest challenges were the exams in every learning block which helped us to understand our strengths and weaknesses. Since German is not our mother tongue, at the beginning we had difficulties with the language. However we are very proud that we could meet the high standard that is applied to German students alike and we did very well in three written exams, two practical exams at the clinic and recently in three oral exams. All of us have passed their intermediary exams and have successfully completed the probation period.
Our tip for future candidates applying for this apprenticeship programme: please work hard on your German language skills. Language plays an important role here and the better you speak and understand German, the easier it will be for you to follow the syllabus and to score high in your exams.
We would like to thank Uniteam Healthcare Services for the great support given to us and the team of Universitätsklinikum Giessen und Marburg (UKGM) for making our start easy and dedicating so much time and efforts towards us becoming valuable members of the UKGM healthcare team.
May all of you stay healthy and happy!
Myanmar apprentices of Uniteam Healthcare Services