Teacher and social worker hoping to move to Australia and advice re finding work?

[stav]

Hi All

I am 36 and my husband is 39. I am a qualified social worker with almost 10 years experience and my husband is a teacher and head of a successful business studies department. We are at the very early stages of exploring a move to Oz and have thousands of questions but obviously life is difficult anywhere without a job, can anyone offer tips as to the easiest ways to find out what jobs are available etc and any tips for applying.....and any other useful info that people want to share with us will be gratefully received (we also have two young children ages 3 months and the eldest is three years so obviously once we have sorted jobs we wil then get into the difficult arena of schools). The areas we are intersted in moving to are South Australia (Adelaide), Melbourne or Brisbane.

Look forward to replies!

Lesley and Paul

[Petals]

Welcome

Here is a web site you can have a look at for Victoria for teachers which is a start and for the social work look at the Department of Human Services.

Teaching - Teaching@DEECD - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

[Libby1971]

The Department of Education and Children Services (DECS) control the appointment of staff within state schools in SA. The system changes according to which way the wind blows.

Private school employment operates the same way as in the UK.

Websites to take a look at are www.seek.com.au or www.careerone.com.au . The Catholic education one is Horizons - Positions Vacant Search Screen

The teacher population in SA is mostly over 50 so there are obvious concerns as they all approach retirement age. There are rumours that the Nat Curric will be implemented in 2010 but most SA teachers don't believe it. Business studies is a popular subject here.

One thing I find interesting in Oz is that you can be a teacher of so many subjects. I am a teacher of RE and there are 24 people in my department.

[becky c]

Hi Lesley and Paul,

Cant help on the teaching side, but I'm a qualified Social Worker living in South Australia. If you're degree qualified, then finding a job should be no problem for you, especially if you're prepared to work in Children and Families. Don't seem to be that many jobs for adult work though. If you're Dip SW qualified like me, then there is plenty of work too, but obviously not as well paid. Most of the work is with voluntary agencies, not for profit organisations and that sort of thing.

When you get to the point of a skills assessment to apply for your visa, (if you're going on your skills as opposed to your husbands), if you've got a degree then you can probably get recognition as a Social Worker, however if you've got a Dip SW, then you may need to check out the AIWCW, for recognition as a Welfare Worker.

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me,

Bec xx