Poms In Oz
28th November 2009, 11:52 PM
Hi All
I am in touch with a young Englishman called Luke who is almost 18. His only sibling, an older sister, has settled in Perth. She is on a temporary Partner visa for 2 years but I believe that she should be upgraded to Permanent Residency by about Easter 2010.
Luke left school at 16 and has been doing odd jobs on a casual basis ever since. They live in a depressed, run-down part of NE England where unemployment is very high and prospects for a youngster are very low, frankly.
Luke's parents are in their late 40s and his father is a Cook. Luke's grandmother died recently so the parents and Luke now want to join their daugher and sister in Perth.
Mum & Dad were planning to apply for a Parent subclass 103 visa last time I heard from Luke's mother. They thought at the time that CPVs for both parents would be too expensive. They might have more money since Granny's recent death but I do not know.
The suggestion for Luke at the moment is that he should enrol for the new Carpentry course at Silver Trowel Training in Perth, probably to start his studies in about July/August 2010. As far as I know, neither Luke's sister or her Partner have any contacts in the construction industry in WA. I know one of the Bricklaying tutors at Silver Trowel, so I know from him that the Carpentry course was new at the start of the current semester in August or whenever it was but the Bricklaying tutor knows almost nothing about Carpentry, he says.
It is a Catch-22 for Luke, I feel. If the Parents can afford to apply for a Contributory Parent visa then Luke may well be able to get a Remaining Relative visa later, in which case a Working Holiday visa might do for him in the interim. However youngsters nowadays - I am convinced - must train for a recognised skill and obtain both formal qualifications and work experience in whichever skill they have chosen because house prices etc in Perth are likely to rise. It is not possible to make a decent living without a recognisable occupation, I suspect, and I am told that Luke is not a budding entrepreneur temperamentally. His situation in the UK is hopeless work & money wise and he is pining for his sister, which is not helping. He is also terrified of flying and freaked out on the plane when he and his parents visited his sister earlier in 2009. I think they gave Luke a few stiff drinks to steady his nerves, hoped for the best and got him through the two flghts from and back to the UK.
An advantage of a Student visa would be to minimise further air travel for Luke but with the future for prospective Students likely to change with the new ESOS Bill, I find it hard to envisage what the pathway to PR would look like for this youngster. A quick outline of the likely scenario would be helpful.
I've been involved in helping to suggest possible courses that Luke might consider studying in Perth. He does not want to follow his father into a commercial kitchen. He is not at all academic and struggled to get the bare minimum in GCSEs before leaving school as soon as he turned 16.
I suggested Landscape Gardening at the TAFE in Murdoch but Luke is daunted by the academic content in the description on the ETI website. His sister lives in a suburb called Seven Rivers, SOR and quite close to Gosnells and Luke would live with her, getting around on a pushbike, which I would think should be OK even in the middle of summer?
Sheelagh & Robert, please. You both know Perth better than I do. One of the things I like about the Murdoch Landscaping course is that apparently the TAFE is able to organise work placements for its Students in Kings Park, so it says in the brochure for the course. That would certainly help towards the current requirement for 900 hours, I would guess, and whatever might replace it. Kings Park is lovely so the work placements would probably be lots of fun too, bearing in mind that Luke is so young.
From everything I've heard about the "traditional" construction trades, Australian employers are just as prejudiced towards "new fangled teaching methods" as they are in the UK. The older ones, in their 50s, are convinced that there is no substitute for a lengthy, traditional apprenticeship with the formal qualifications being less important than hands-on experience of doing the actual job.
Whatever the ideal might be, youngsters in the UK do not have the luxury of choice because employers will not subsidise lengthy training for them at the statutory Minimum Wage. They might be more co-operative if there were a lower Apprentice Wage but that is not permissible in the UK. So the youngsters are stuck, I suspect. Also hardly any construction projects are under way, even in the relatively affluent South of England. There is a bit of commercial construction in Southampton but I've seen far more in earlier years. House building round here has stopped. The traditional house builders have all been doing Rights Issues instead, trying to raise cash from their shareholders.
I have heard of a Perth based company called OzAssess. I know that they can do AQF III assessments for Welders and others in the Engineering Trades but nothing comes up on the CRICOS website so I assume that OzAssess does not offer courses that overseas students could enrol for.
The family have been to the Expos in their part of England and have contacted several RMAs but the RMAs are telling them about the present Student to PR regime, which is likely to change. It is no use selling something on the basis of today's legislation when it is common knowledge that the relevant legislation is likely to change pretty soon.
I am running out of ideas for young Luke. Any advice at all would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks
Gill
I am in touch with a young Englishman called Luke who is almost 18. His only sibling, an older sister, has settled in Perth. She is on a temporary Partner visa for 2 years but I believe that she should be upgraded to Permanent Residency by about Easter 2010.
Luke left school at 16 and has been doing odd jobs on a casual basis ever since. They live in a depressed, run-down part of NE England where unemployment is very high and prospects for a youngster are very low, frankly.
Luke's parents are in their late 40s and his father is a Cook. Luke's grandmother died recently so the parents and Luke now want to join their daugher and sister in Perth.
Mum & Dad were planning to apply for a Parent subclass 103 visa last time I heard from Luke's mother. They thought at the time that CPVs for both parents would be too expensive. They might have more money since Granny's recent death but I do not know.
The suggestion for Luke at the moment is that he should enrol for the new Carpentry course at Silver Trowel Training in Perth, probably to start his studies in about July/August 2010. As far as I know, neither Luke's sister or her Partner have any contacts in the construction industry in WA. I know one of the Bricklaying tutors at Silver Trowel, so I know from him that the Carpentry course was new at the start of the current semester in August or whenever it was but the Bricklaying tutor knows almost nothing about Carpentry, he says.
It is a Catch-22 for Luke, I feel. If the Parents can afford to apply for a Contributory Parent visa then Luke may well be able to get a Remaining Relative visa later, in which case a Working Holiday visa might do for him in the interim. However youngsters nowadays - I am convinced - must train for a recognised skill and obtain both formal qualifications and work experience in whichever skill they have chosen because house prices etc in Perth are likely to rise. It is not possible to make a decent living without a recognisable occupation, I suspect, and I am told that Luke is not a budding entrepreneur temperamentally. His situation in the UK is hopeless work & money wise and he is pining for his sister, which is not helping. He is also terrified of flying and freaked out on the plane when he and his parents visited his sister earlier in 2009. I think they gave Luke a few stiff drinks to steady his nerves, hoped for the best and got him through the two flghts from and back to the UK.
An advantage of a Student visa would be to minimise further air travel for Luke but with the future for prospective Students likely to change with the new ESOS Bill, I find it hard to envisage what the pathway to PR would look like for this youngster. A quick outline of the likely scenario would be helpful.
I've been involved in helping to suggest possible courses that Luke might consider studying in Perth. He does not want to follow his father into a commercial kitchen. He is not at all academic and struggled to get the bare minimum in GCSEs before leaving school as soon as he turned 16.
I suggested Landscape Gardening at the TAFE in Murdoch but Luke is daunted by the academic content in the description on the ETI website. His sister lives in a suburb called Seven Rivers, SOR and quite close to Gosnells and Luke would live with her, getting around on a pushbike, which I would think should be OK even in the middle of summer?
Sheelagh & Robert, please. You both know Perth better than I do. One of the things I like about the Murdoch Landscaping course is that apparently the TAFE is able to organise work placements for its Students in Kings Park, so it says in the brochure for the course. That would certainly help towards the current requirement for 900 hours, I would guess, and whatever might replace it. Kings Park is lovely so the work placements would probably be lots of fun too, bearing in mind that Luke is so young.
From everything I've heard about the "traditional" construction trades, Australian employers are just as prejudiced towards "new fangled teaching methods" as they are in the UK. The older ones, in their 50s, are convinced that there is no substitute for a lengthy, traditional apprenticeship with the formal qualifications being less important than hands-on experience of doing the actual job.
Whatever the ideal might be, youngsters in the UK do not have the luxury of choice because employers will not subsidise lengthy training for them at the statutory Minimum Wage. They might be more co-operative if there were a lower Apprentice Wage but that is not permissible in the UK. So the youngsters are stuck, I suspect. Also hardly any construction projects are under way, even in the relatively affluent South of England. There is a bit of commercial construction in Southampton but I've seen far more in earlier years. House building round here has stopped. The traditional house builders have all been doing Rights Issues instead, trying to raise cash from their shareholders.
I have heard of a Perth based company called OzAssess. I know that they can do AQF III assessments for Welders and others in the Engineering Trades but nothing comes up on the CRICOS website so I assume that OzAssess does not offer courses that overseas students could enrol for.
The family have been to the Expos in their part of England and have contacted several RMAs but the RMAs are telling them about the present Student to PR regime, which is likely to change. It is no use selling something on the basis of today's legislation when it is common knowledge that the relevant legislation is likely to change pretty soon.
I am running out of ideas for young Luke. Any advice at all would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks
Gill