Bracing for life after Brexit, U.K. hospitals badly need more nurses like Filipino Jobie Escalona. But she twice flunked the English language test that is required to get there, in which she was asked to write about topics such as the merits of immigration and computer education in school.
With three years experience in a private hospital in Manila, 23-year-old Escalona lost almost 3 months' salary paying nearly $600 to sit the International English Language Test System (IELTS) tests.
Fed up, she was ready to give up on the U.K. and try Canada — one of several other countries short of nurses — until her father persuaded her to take the test a third time.