Om International found that the UK sector is reporting increasing numbers of international students dropping out soon after enrolment in order to accept employment offers in the care sector.
Well, Om group sees the changes to the skilled worker visa system mean that applicants are no longer required to hold a degree-level qualification to apply.
Students who can secure a job offer from an employer approved by the Home Office they can apply to switch from the student route visa to the skilled worker visa immediately, without any need to complete their degree.
Om International has discovered a growing trend of overseas immigration consultants using universities as a stepping stone to help clients enter the UK and then switch to care jobs before they are required to pay full tuition fees.
This route offers a cheaper and faster pathway to full-time employment in the UK compared to the graduate route – which requires students to pay expensive course fees and maintenance for the duration of their course, before entering the jobs market.
While this is a completely legitimate immigration pathway, it will play havoc with university finances as it cannibalizes the international student population before they graduate.
Non-continuation costs the UK higher education sector more than £300 million per year, and more than 100 universities are each losing more than £1m annually in undergraduate tuition fees alone from students who drop out, according to pre-pandemic HESA data.
By CEO of Om International, “Attention all international students! New vacancies for care workers and health professionals in the UK with instant job placement. The only thing needed is for you to switch your visa with the skilled worker visa.”
We recently celebrated the success of a student switching study visa to a tier 2 worker permit successfully in just a very short time.
The skilled worker visa, previously known as the Tier 2 visa, was redesigned to make applications smoother including a lowering of the salary threshold and the removal of the resident labour market test. If approved, candidates can work in the UK for up to five years before applying to extend their visa or apply for permanent residency.
It is something that is on our radar, and subsequently, we’re putting more steps in place to try and mitigate this within our credibility interviews and also our compliance policies.
We do try and ask students what their plans are if they decide to leave UCB, but often they become very disengaged by this stage [so it is hard to track]. We keep an eye on the early indicators, such as their location, and also attend to intercept students who are not active as early as possible.
While the latest immigration statistics do not state how many people switched visa routes, they do show a 179% increase in skilled worker visas granted in human health and social care activities in Q3 year-on-year. Successful recipients grew from 7,711 in Q3 2021 to 21,543 in Q3 2022.
This period correlates to the main autumn university intake in the UK and shows the biggest spike of skilled worker visas granted in the year. There is also a correlation to the next intakes with a +67% increase year on year in Q1 with 11,139 visas granted in 2022. These numbers exclude applicants who have applied to extend an existing visa.
The Home Office currently advises an 11-week average wait time to get a decision on skilled worker visas due to high demand.
For essential service sectors such as healthcare, that have been hit with labour shortages since Brexit, employing international students already in the UK is a way to fill the gap.
Om international guide you on how to switch to the skilled worker visa state,
- you might be able to apply to change (‘switch’) to a skilled worker visa if you’re already in the UK on a different type of visa.
- You must meet the following requirements – your job meets the eligibility requirements; [and] you can speak, read, write and understand English.
- You’ll usually need to be paid at least £25,600 per year or £10.10 per hour, whichever is higher. There are different salary rules if you work in some healthcare jobs, where the going rate is based on national pay scales, the instructions added.
For more information please feel free to contact me on :
VISHAL SHAH
CEO - OM Group of Companies
OM INTERNATIONAL
An ISO 9001: 2008 Certified Company & CRISIL AAA Rated Company Head Office: 2nd floor, Indraprasth Avenue, Next to Urjita Hospital, V.I.P. Road, Karelibaug, Vadodara-390018, Gujarat, INDIA
Phone:+91-265-2480840 / 2464464 /164
Mobile+91-999 8157 999 / 9601051799 Office: +91-922 765 6606 / 08 / 09
Email: omvishal.shah@gmail.com W - www.ominternational.net / www.omvisas.in
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