Selina Smith Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Hi, I am a newly qualified teacher hoping to apply for an Australian visa. As I turned 32 this year and will be dropping points in the age category I will need to work a minimum of three years as a teacher in the UK to bump my points up enough to apply for a visa. I have found out I am pregnant and would have completed 1 school year when the baby arrives, will my maternity leave affect my 3 years work experience? I will still be employed by the local authority, will still have all of the rights of a full time teacher but if I have 6 months off with the new baby can I count this towards my three years experience as I am officially still employed? Thank you in advance for your replies xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrussell Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Hi, I am a newly qualified teacher hoping to apply for an Australian visa. As I turned 32 this year and will be dropping points in the age category I will need to work a minimum of three years as a teacher in the UK to bump my points up enough to apply for a visa. I have found out I am pregnant and would have completed 1 school year when the baby arrives, will my maternity leave affect my 3 years work experience? I will still be employed by the local authority, will still have all of the rights of a full time teacher but if I have 6 months off with the new baby can I count this towards my three years experience as I am officially still employed? Thank you in advance for your replies xx Here is the current policy: As employment must be for remuneration, only periods of leave on full pay may be counted as time during which an applicant was employed. That means those periods of extended leave without pay (for example, maternity or paternity leave) might not be counted as a period of employment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozmaniac Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 @wrussell has answered your question about maternity leave and work experience but you should be able to get to 60+ points without any points for work experience if you were to get a visa application under way before you turn 33. You would need to get points for Superior English but that should be easily achievable for a teacher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrussell Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 @wrussell has answered your question about maternity leave and work experience but you should be able to get to 60+ points without any points for work experience if you were to get a visa application under way before you turn 33. You would need to get points for Superior English but that should be easily achievable for a teacher. There was a teacher who consulted me and who held a recognised 4-year teaching degree plus Masters in English and who had been teaching college-level English for 8 years and who failed to Achieve IELTS Academic 7 in 3 attempts. A UK educated teacher should not face this issue for lack of English language ability or lack of examination technique and should know, better than most others that PREPARATION is the name of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selina Smith Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Thank you for the replies, I was considering starting the process before I turned 33 (which will be in July 2015) but although my teaching qualification is specifically 'early years' which is on the SOL list from my research it looks as though I would not be able to apply for this as the early years regulations are different is Oz compared to the UK so would need to apply for primary school teacher on the CSOL. As my original degree was not in an education based subject I think that rules out Queensland and possibly NSW. Primary teacher is schedule 2 in WA so would need a job offer first and I've heard finding teaching work in Victoria is extremely difficult. All of this information is through my own research from the internet so please let me know if any of it is wrong. We have previously travelled all over Australia on our 2 year WHV so would be happy to start our new life in any of the states. Thank you again for the replies and any further advice would be much appreciated xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildrover Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Here is the current policy: As employment must be for remuneration, only periods of leave on full pay may be counted as time during which an applicant was employed. That means those periods of extended leave without pay (for example, maternity or paternity leave) might not be counted as a period of employment. Would maternity pay plus statuary pay combined count as full pay as long as the amounts tally up? for example in the nhs you can get 8 weeks full pay on maternity 18 weeks on maternity and statuary pay then 18 weeks half pay effectively thanks WR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozmaniac Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Thank you for the replies, I was considering starting the process before I turned 33 (which will be in July 2015) but although my teaching qualification is specifically 'early years' which is on the SOL list from my research it looks as though I would not be able to apply for this as the early years regulations are different is Oz compared to the UK so would need to apply for primary school teacher on the CSOL. As my original degree was not in an education based subject I think that rules out Queensland and possibly NSW. Primary teacher is schedule 2 in WA so would need a job offer first and I've heard finding teaching work in Victoria is extremely difficult. All of this information is through my own research from the internet so please let me know if any of it is wrong. We have previously travelled all over Australia on our 2 year WHV so would be happy to start our new life in any of the states. Thank you again for the replies and any further advice would be much appreciated xx Have you checked the AITSL skills assessment requirements? For any points tested visa, you must have a positive skills assessment from them before you can even submit an EOI much less lodge a visa application. It seems that you've checked teacher registration requirements in at least some states but skills assessment with its different requirements is the first hurdle you MUST overcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selina Smith Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Yes I have looked at the AITSL and as far as I can see I would get a positive assesment for primary school teacher but possibly not for early years teacher (this info was given to me by an agent at an expo in the UK). I'm unsure about applying for AITSL and the IELTS as they have a limited timeframe for a positive assesment and if I do have to work for another 4 years in the UK (due to maternity leave not being counted in work experience) these will have both expired by the time I have enough points. The other option of course is just to go for it before I turn 33 and see what happens xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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