Coming to Melbourne for a 3 week reccie - worth trying to make contacts now?

Hi,

We are a family of 4 (our kids are 5 and 2) who gained our permanent residents visas in Feb this year. In September we are coming to do a 3 week reccie of Melbourne and surrounding areas to check out possible areas to live etc prior to moving in late 2016/early 2017.

Our trip is a mixture of staying in places that we think may be potential locations for us to move to and also. sight seeing and having a nice family holiday. So we are staying in Point Cook and Geelong, then we are doing the Great Ocean Road, staying in Lorne, crossing over and doing the Mornington peninsula before heading up to St Kilda and then finishing off in Richmond.

What we want to know is whether it is worth trying to make some connections with local people to discuss work options, living conditions and prospects etc, or is it far too early for that? My husband is a joiner who has run his own joinery company for the last 10 years and I am a high school teacher (ICT) with 7 years experience.

We'd love to be able to speak to some real ex-pats about their experiences in the key places we 'think' we are looking to move to - namely Point Cook and Geelong, but also speak to people in similar job roles to see what the job market is like.

I like to think we are being very level headed about our decision to move and we aren't wearing rose tinted glasses. Yes, we have spent the money on the visas, but we had a small inheritance and so we decided to use it to get the visas sorted and come and visit Australia before making a firm commitment, but it would still be great to make contact with some real people when down in Australia to hear their views on how successful their move has been and what might help us make the ultimate decision.

Hi @duckygee I am sure there are a number of members who would love to catch up. It sounds like you are covering a lot of areas, please take a rest and try and enjoy it as well, especially with two young children.

Try and squeeze in Berwick as well if you can.

In regards to making contacts it's hard because as yet you haven't chosen an area. We do have a teacher on here based in Melbourne @dmjg so he may be able to give you his thoughts. It sounds an exciting trip, have fun.

First things first. To be a teacher in victoria you muct have 4 years university with at least 45 days supervised teaching practise. Both these must be clearly seen on your university transcripts. If you only have three years uni, you will need a top up. Experience doesnt count. I think they are trying to get a masters as the minimum brought in soon too.

http://www.vit.vic.edu.au/registering-as-a-teacher/how-do-i-register-as-a-teacher/qualifications

We are on the other side of the bay to where you will be looking.

So, no idea of IT jobs over that side. We havent had to hire an IT teacher for years so i dont know how many are out there hunting work. Our ICT teaching time has actually decreased as all junior students have their own 'device' that they are expected to bring to each lesson. Thus we have all been classed as IT teachers and specialist IT teachers are not timetabled onto junior classes like they once were. ICT is now an elective in senior school only. One of the IT teachers retired last year and was not replaced, and the rest have picked up maths/humanitites/pe to fill their allotment.

To put the current teaching climate into perspective, we put out a one term (12 week) contract for a maths teacher and had about 60 applications. About half were from people who didnt have the correct qualifications, but the fact that there were so many maths teachers floating around looking for such short term contracts was surprising.

Jobs for the following year (Jan) are advertised from september to the end of november. If you havent got something by then, it will be hard to snap up a job in december. If you are really , really lucky you might get something in Jan, but its not likely.

Thus for the best chance of getting a job that starts on 27th jan, you have to be here to attend interviews from sept to nov with not much chance of paid work for five months. You could pick up relief teaching but it dries up fairly quickly into term 4 as the y12 students leave at the end of october.

For each job you will have to provide answers to a set of Key Selection Criteria Questions, with references to how you meet each and examples in your teaching of when and how. They are fairly straightforward and can be adapted for each job application but require effort to get right in the first place.

The two jobs i applied for in 2010 contained a front 'fill in the blanks' application form, a 1 page covering letter, a two page cv, three pages of answers to the 7 (i think) Key Selection Criteria. I dont think its changed much since, except more applications are filled out on line now with less knocking on doors.

But knocking on doors cant hurt. I got a job over skype from the uk by emailing a school saying i was looking for a term 4 job. A chat to the deputy principal and i was offered it (very short term contracts dont require advertising, longer than a term do, even if someone is already in the job and will get it again.)

For eample, a female teacher can have her maternity leave and take upto seven years off work to raise the child. At any time in that seven years she can say, im coming back for term whatever, and her job must be waiting. Thus there are lots of yearly or less contracts floating around. But the same covering teacher might have been in that position for three years or so. Its not a real job up for grabs, the same teacher that already holds it will get it again, unless the mum comes back to work of course......

But teachers are always moving, always retiring and always starting somewhere. The days of being able to walk into a job are getting rarer, but if you are in the right place at the right time, with the right skills, youre in.

Be prepared; have your skills assessed, your VIT sorted, read up on the national curriculum and have links to what and how you have taught each descriptor. And be prepared to apply for lots of jobs. You could apply and wait three to four weeks for a reply and interview, then a week or so for an offer.

Any specific questions, just ask.

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, @The Pom Queen, we are doing a lot, but we are on the ground for 3 weeks and so I'm hoping we aren't trying to squeeze too much in, as I do want it to be a holiday, as well as a reccie.I actually haven't heard of Berwick before, so I'll definitely look ot up.

Thank you for your thorough response @dmjg it is really interesting to read things from the perspective of a teacher down on the ground. I actually already have my VIT registration. I did it as part of my visa application, as I initially thought we may have to go for state sponsorship, but eventually we didn't as we had enough points without it. So in terms of that, that isn't an issue. I am a little more concerned about the potential lack of IT jobs out there. We chose Victoria as the place to start for two reasons a) because my brother and his family are moving out there next May and b) because secondary school IT were and still remain on the Victoria skills shortage list, so it's a little depressing to read that like in the UK, IT as a subject is being killed off. I suppose when the time comes, we'll just have to see how things go. To be honest, if I can afford it, I'd prefer not to work full time because if teaching over there is even a 10th a time consuming and all encompassing as it is over here, I just don't have the energy to work full time, as I'd rather see my children grow up. Maybe in that respect, having short term contracts floating around is a good thing, although maybe not for financial security

Hi,

 

We are a family of 4 (our kids are 5 and 2) who gained our permanent residents visas in Feb this year. In September we are coming to do a 3 week reccie of Melbourne and surrounding areas to check out possible areas to live etc prior to moving in late 2016/early 2017.

 

Our trip is a mixture of staying in places that we think may be potential locations for us to move to and also. sight seeing and having a nice family holiday. So we are staying in Point Cook and Geelong, then we are doing the Great Ocean Road, staying in Lorne, crossing over and doing the Mornington peninsula before heading up to St Kilda and then finishing off in Richmond.

 

What we want to know is whether it is worth trying to make some connections with local people to discuss work options, living conditions and prospects etc, or is it far too early for that? My husband is a joiner who has run his own joinery company for the last 10 years and I am a high school teacher (ICT) with 7 years experience.

 

We'd love to be able to speak to some real ex-pats about their experiences in the key places we 'think' we are looking to move to - namely Point Cook and Geelong, but also speak to people in similar job roles to see what the job market is like.

 

I like to think we are being very level headed about our decision to move and we aren't wearing rose tinted glasses. Yes, we have spent the money on the visas, but we had a small inheritance and so we decided to use it to get the visas sorted and come and visit Australia before making a firm commitment, but it would still be great to make contact with some real people when down in Australia to hear their views on how successful their move has been and what might help us make the ultimate decision.

Pity we'll just miss you guys by a month.

We're over August 2016 for a Reccie.

Best of luck!

B

Pity we'll just miss you guys by a month.

 

We're over August 2016 for a Reccie.

 

Best of luck!

 

B

It was September 2015 we went @Beaty. Had a great time and saw loads and now preparing to move over in June/July next year