Heading down under

Starting a new life

–Little Bill and Huddo in Melbourne

We have always been a fairly active couple. Our legs take us to and from work, we go for the odd bike ride at weekends, and try to get down the gym in our lunch breaks too. In fact it was in our gym that we first met, and the rest, as they say, is history. We still firmly believe that we should have met in a pub, we could have dropped the fitness pretence and organised a pub crawl from London to Melbourne. We’ll put that idea on ice for the moment…. it has potential.

To us, Australia offered us an environment where we could leave our city office jobs far behind, and throw ourselves into an active, outdoors lifestyle.

The problem, however, is that obtaining skilled migrant visas in Australia is becoming more difficult each year. The list of skilled occupations in demand is shrinking faster than the cheap Boca Juniors t-shirt I picked up last year. Just like my “t-shirt-come- crop-top”, the list isn’t pleasing on the eye for most City based office workers, but there is still hope. After attending one of the Down Under Exhibitions at Earls Court (the Australian capital of England), we spoke with a consultant who put us in touch with an Education advice service called Study Options. It was here that we met with Stefan, who in short, helped us piece together what we wanted to achieve, and how we could achieve it, all within a couple of meetings. He then took us through the whole application process from start to finish. The service is free, and we found his industry knowledge to be absolutely priceless. Thankyou Stefan!

As a couple, the Australian authorities only require one of us to be in a “skilled shortage” vocation for permanent residency. After failing to convince Jodie to take up bricklaying, I eventually “manned up” (from the verb “to man up”) and applied for an Electrical Engineering Diploma at Holmesglen College. Jodie has opted for a Resort Management (water recreation) course through the William Angliss Institute. One day we hope to step into this industry together and so these skills will prove essential further down the road. Although I am still convinced that “Billy Burtos Bricks” was destined for big things, we are both very excited by these new opportunities. Not only that, but our study visas also allow us to each work 20 hours per week. This will reduce the financial burden of rent and education fees.

If you are considering looking into Australian or New Zealand Education, contact Study Options below