Construction Workers needed in Victoria

According to a survey undertaken by the Master Builders Association, the Australian State of Victoria needs 40,000 new construction workers in the next five years.

The MBA says skilled workers are needed in order to solve the skills shortage and it is the issue which is most affecting the sector’s progression.

This is obviously good news for folks skilled in the construction profession who are considering a permanent move to Australia.

MBA executive director Brian Welch said: Read more

Popularity: 6% [?]

UK Nurses heading to Australia

When our baby girl was born in Australia I was quite surprised by the number of english nurses and midwives working in our hospital.

Sure I expected to meet quite a few English staff as there a quite a few Poms living in the area anyway but at a guess I’d say over 85% of the nursing staff I met were of British origin.

It looks like this exodus is starting to have an effect to with the Royal College of Nursing warning that the UK may be on the verge of a nursing crisis as an unprecedented number of nurses migrate to Australia.

In 2007, a record 5,000 British nurses formally signalled an intention to take up work in Australian hospitals, having been lured by attractive offers and an unparalleled lifestyle.

Indeed, numbers of nurses making Australian visa applications have been so high that the RNC has highlighted the need for Britain to retain the nurses which it was producing.

Howard Catton, head of policy for the RNC, explained that he has met Australian employers who had come to the UK to recruit up to 60 nurses at a time, but who had in fact ended up making offers to twice that number.

Despite being wary of the record numbers of UK-trained nurses taking up employment in Australia, Mr. Catton admitted that he understood how attractive many of the offers were. He said:

“The Australians have stepped up their recruitment activity on the basis of what they believe is unemployment and downsizing in the UK.

“There is a belief that in the UK we don’t need the nurses we’ve got - but we know we do need them.

“The Australian recruitment agencies that I’ve spoken to since I’ve been here are making very attractive offers.

“It’s not just the starting salaries. The packages include air travel - for nurses’ families as well - relocation expenses, temporary accommodation and the promise that they’ll support an application for permanent residency.
“A couple of employers even offer a ‘meet and greet’ service at the airport with chauffeur-driven limousines, so the nurses are made to feel welcome as soon as their feet touch the ground.

“Nurses have always historically left the UK and gone to Australia but the numbers have doubled recently.”

I’d be interested to see if we have any British nurses visiting our site. If you are then perhaps give us your own view

Popularity: 6% [?]

Australian Salary Survey - How much will I earn in Australia?

When moving out to Australia the question around Australian Salary’s and how these compare to those paid in your current country are often one of those frequently asked questions which will be important to everyone.

The consensus is that due to Australia’s ‘Cheaper’ cost of living, the average salary can often be 10 - 20% less then those paid in your home country.

I know when we moved from the UK to Australia I was told to expect to take a big pay cut if I was applying for a similar job, having said that I think it really comes down to the case of supply and demand and thankfully I was able to secure a job paying a similar kind of salary to the one I was paid in the UK.

Thankfully, there are a number of Australian based recruitment companies who regularly Review and publish Salary Survey information. These are a really helpful resource for you to review if you want to get an indication of the kind of Salaries being paid within a specific region.

Michael Page International has recently published the results of its most recent survey.

The surveys are broken down into a number of areas and include:

• Banking (.pdf 149KB)
• Accounting (.pdf 149KB)
• Chartered Accounting Profession (.pdf 149KB)
• Engineering (.pdf 135KB)
• Procurement & Supply Chain (.pdf 121KB)
• Human Resources (.pdf 123KB)
• Legal (.pdf 127KB)
• Sales (.pdf 143KB)
• Marketing (.pdf 147KB)
• Technology (.pdf 138KB)

You’ll need the Adobe’s acrobat reader to open these files. It’s a free application and if your not one of the 98% of computer users who already have this you can download it by clicking here.

Another of the large recruitment companies; Hays, also publish a similar survey on an annual basis.

The Hays Survey is compiled from information collected from their 42 locations throughout Australia and New Zealand and are based on the average salary paid on over 12,000 jobs advertised by Hays in the previous 12 months.

Similarly to the Michael Page Salary Surveys, the Hays Surveys are broken down into a number of key areas including Accountancy and Finance, Insurance, Contact Centres, Resourcing and Mining and Legal to name just a few.

Surveys are great but sometimes are so generic they may not give you all of the information you need to get a true idea of the kind of money you might end up earning within Australia.

Prior to moving to Australia I found the best way to get an idea of the Salary I could expect to be paid was by simply searching for a role similar to my current role on a number of the Aussie based recruitment websites.

Seek.com.au is touted as being Australia’s No 1 Employment site, however I also found that sites such as Jobserve.com.au and Mycareer.com.au also presented some decent information.

You’ll quickly find that there is some duplication of the roles advertised on these sites so the site you decide to settle on will really come down to your own personal preferences I guess.

Popularity: 19% [?]