Prospective Trades Skills Students in Oz - Be Wary

[Gollywobbler]

Hi All

I think that anybody who is contemplating going to Australia to study for a trades skill should tread very carefully. Some of the details of the new regime for training foreign tradies in Australia have now been published but not all of them. It is not clear whether there will be a change to the current requirement for 2 years at college in Australia.

TRA have now released the details of the new JobReady testing programme for tradies who have learned their skills in Australia and the new JobReady rules come into effect on 1st January 2010. The JobReady thing comprises four separate elements before the tradie can apply for an onshore GSM visa. The potential cost of the four stages could be as high as $4,550 in some cases:

Job Ready - Overview

After leaving college, the newly trained tradies will also have to gain not less than 12 months of recent, relevant work experience before they can complete the remaining stages of the JobReady test and apply for a GSM visa. If they decide to stay in Australia in order to get the work experience, they will be forced to obtain a temporary subclass 485 visa for the purpose:

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...migration/485/

Before they can get a sc 485 visa, though, these tradies will have to pass the first of the four stages of the JobReady assessment:

Job Ready - Provisional Skills Assessment

Part of obtaining this preliminary JobReady assessment involves satisfying a criterion which I do not understand. The TRA website says that one of the things the applicant must provide is:

Statement from your employer about your work experience in Australia over at least 6 months. The statement must detail the occupation in which you were employed; exact periods of employment; and a description of the nature and content of your work along with the machines, tools and equipment used.

Is there any hard evidence to prove that 100% of trades skills trainees are able to fill their part time work abilities (which are optional as far as their student visas are concerned) doing work which is relevant to the trade skill in which they are being trained? What evidence is there that the Government intends to ensure that relevant, paid work experience will be available for all of the overseas students who want it?

No doubt the whole thing will become clearer once the migration agents who specialise in advising overseas students have had a chance to get their teeth into the new arrangements. However my feeling is that prospective trades skills students need to tread very, very carefully and should obtain specialist, detailed, competent advice about exactly how the whole thing will work before handing a single cent to a college in Australia, frankly.

Cheers

Gill

[kay82]

This is the straight kick in to International students stomach, this requirements are virtually impossible to fulfill and that's why they have made it like this, I would love to see now how these all trades colleges survive without students

[Cimbom]

I agree Kay. Sounds like a lot of protectionism to me. I don't get the work experience requirement at all. Especially for trades such as engineering technicians and the like. How can you possibly get work experience in an area like that without being qualified?

Such a shame too. I think international students contribute a lot to the country.

It's great that you posted this Gill.

[Eera]

Does this system treat overseas trades students as different from onshore ones as far as the tuition is concerned? According to the OH his training in the automotive industry was that he was effectively employed full time and he attended trade school for 1 week in every 4 for the first year, rising to 2 weeks in every 6, therefore you get the work experience as part of the apprenticeship in the first place.

The apprenticeship agencies such as MRAEL seem to do the the same thing in terms of they source host companies to provide the on-job experience while they sort out the tuition side of things at trade school.

If that's how they're aiming it, it doesn't seem to be a problem to me, but if they're expecting an overseas person to do full-time tuition and then source all their own experience it's going to be a lot harder.

[jsmithjsmith]

Hi,

I wonder if you know if this would this apply to my best mate? He originally came out to oz on a student visa but the his company took him on a 457 as soon as he was qualified, he was just working on his tra application and as soon as he gets a positive from tra his work were going to sponser him on rsms. Will he still be able to or will he have to take this costly job ready test? he is really worrying now.

Thanks

[Alan Collett]

Originally Posted by Cimbom

I agree Kay. Sounds like a lot of protectionism to me.

<snip>

Such a shame too. I think international students contribute a lot to the country.

It's great that you posted this Gill.

Remember that one person's protectionism is another person's patriotism - looking after the interests of Australian citizens first, and all that.

With a Federal election scheduled for 2010 which sentiment do you think is likely to be higher up the Minister's list of priorities? I can almost hear the start of media criticism of the Minister, and his "looking after the needs of Australians" retort.

Personally, I think the skilled migration program has become far too influenced by the onshore student caseload over the last few years, and as such steps are needed to free up places for offshore applicants who already have skilled work experience, who are (I submit) likely to be more gainfully employed upon the commencement of employment in Australia.

Best wishes to all for a successful 2010.

[Alan Collett]

PS. I am also aware of the old adage, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel".

[Cimbom]

I agree with you Alan. The interests of Australian workers should be looked after but I think this would be better done by removing professions such as marketing, TV journalism, fashion design and the like (in which local students have a lot of trouble finding jobs) from non employer-sponsored GSM eligibility before they worry about trades which are genuinely in short supply. Just my 2 cents

[blossom79]

The 6 months work will actually leave most of the students on my course better off. There were only I think 4/5 out of about 15 of us who would have had 900 hours of work experiance by the end of our visas (which is what WAS needed). Under that system, most of them would have had to go to their own countries for the work experiance, or signed up for another course, as they could not get the 18 month visa without already having the 900 hours.
The government has no responsibility to help people find jobs, we all knew that before starting our courses.

The TRA website says that most likely IS the cost of the whole process. Unless they suddenly work out how stupid it is, it has jumped from $300 this week to $4550!!!

I count myself extremly lucky that my employer will probably give me a contract (although I have to ask yet). Of course, trying to convince them to register with TRA and have them turning up at least twice and looking around the company might be harder.

What also really p's me off is the part of the price for the Australian work place culture and language course! Why are they insisting people have IELTS tests, and then that too??? Surely people learn enough from the 6 months they must already have worked, and from their two year course!

I am SO disgusted by this, I was one week off, and the price has gone up over 15 times the origional one! I knew I would end up having to work an extra year most likely, but never in my wildest dreams did I think the cost would go up so much, and they would want employers to jump through so many hoops! I think this will make it VERY hard for most students.

[Cimbom]

So sorry to hear that Blossom. What are you studying? Hopefully you're able to get through all the requirements and get PR.

These are some really drastic changes. A friend of my partner was considering enrolling into a trade TAFE qualification as he just finished his VCE but now after these changes, is thinking how to save enough money to go down the uni route instead.

Seems like this was done to milk as much money as possible from dedicated international students. I think they're hoping they'll get scared off by all these requirements and go to uni instead, which is a lot more expensive. Even the most cheapest 3-year uni degree is around $55,000, never mind ones which are longer or more competitive/desirable. The ones that stick to TAFE will have to fork out money for all these fancy tests and assessments.