17 December 2008

Still short of skills?

| johnboy
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Times can’t yet be that tough here in Canberra.

Chief Minister Stanhope has announced a new program to encourage foreign students to stay here when they finish their schooling. This is “to address local skill shortages”.

It will be interesting to see how this meshes with next year’s trip to convince SE Asians to send their young here at vast expense for an education they might imagine will benefit their own economies.

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tylersmayhem said :

you aren’t talking about the massive company that was bought by HP, are you?

No comment…

HAH!

Genie said :

Peterh – Customer Service and basic admin… thats about all I can sum my experience up as…

there is a job going at computercorp in fyshwick, they are looking for a sales support person for their defence team. You probably know more than enough about computers, especially if you use one…

Peterh – Customer Service and basic admin… thats about all I can sum my experience up as…

tylersmayhem2:50 pm 18 Dec 08

you aren’t talking about the massive company that was bought by HP, are you?

No comment…

Genie said :

tylers – I’m looking for pretty much anything at the moment… But I lack experience and have an injury that restricts me from doing alot of work. So basically any desk job is all I can apply for.

genie,

what sort of experience?

tylers – I’m looking for pretty much anything at the moment… But I lack experience and have an injury that restricts me from doing alot of work. So basically any desk job is all I can apply for.

tylersmayhem said :

possibly, but they haven’t mentioned it to me. most of my larger clients are now scaling back, not putting on new staff.

In this case, it is a very large scale mob, and they are making a lot of redundancies, and hiring at the same time. Not cool!

you aren’t talking about the massive company that was bought by HP, are you?

tylersmayhem11:29 am 18 Dec 08

possibly, but they haven’t mentioned it to me. most of my larger clients are now scaling back, not putting on new staff.

In this case, it is a very large scale mob, and they are making a lot of redundancies, and hiring at the same time. Not cool!

tylersmayhem said :

I take it you’re a employment agent Peterh?

no tylers, I work for a distributor.

but my clients (resellers) always ask to see if I know of anyone looking for a job.

tylersmayhem10:51 am 18 Dec 08

I take it you’re a employment agent Peterh?

I dunno – in the face of a possible recession I think I’d take the 32K job and keep looking for a better one.

eyeLikeCarrots10:37 am 18 Dec 08

I need to get away from my shitty analyst job.. looking and applying for ICT roles in the APS, there is a metric shitload of jobs.

32k.. bugger that, get into the career stater program of one of the govt depts

tylersmayhem said :

most of the companies that appear to be hiring are smaller.

Nope, not in this case Monsignor!

possibly, but they haven’t mentioned it to me. most of my larger clients are now scaling back, not putting on new staff.

If anyone is looking for work in the IT industry, I do know of a couple of clients who are hiring, some fairly quickly too. The positions range from certified techs to sales support. If you want to email me about any opportunities, I will pass the info on to them. It isn’t something i can guarantee, but it might be a step in the right direction.

tylersmayhem9:02 am 18 Dec 08

What type of work are you looking for Genie?

Do you actually know anyone who is struggling to find work, who is halfway presentable?

*putting hand up* I am struggling to find work… I have been unemployed for almost 3 months, and sadly can’t even say I am a dole bludger as Centrelink still wont approve me for Newstart.

At the moment I am applying left, right and centre for jobs – But keep getting rejected due to lack of experience… Which is why I pointed out earlier that employers are WAY too fussy at the moment as pretty much everything demands a minimum of 12months experience, some even 5 yrs that I saw today. (I highly doubt someone with 5 yrs admin experience would apply for a job only paying 32k a year, when they could quite easily be working in the public service for double. )

Am I just too fussy to think that 32k a year seems entry level !?

tylersmayhem4:32 pm 17 Dec 08

most of the companies that appear to be hiring are smaller.

Nope, not in this case Monsignor!

tylersmayhem said :

Funny (not really) that some of the companies doing the retrenching as actually hiring at the same time, and have in fact taken new people of since the redundancies. Not cool!

I am not aware of any at the moment. most of the companies that appear to be hiring are smaller.

they are trying to gain the experience in the bigger accounts.

tylersmayhem3:41 pm 17 Dec 08

Funny (not really) that some of the companies doing the retrenching as actually hiring at the same time, and have in fact taken new people of since the redundancies. Not cool!

tylersmayhem said :

Yep, retrenchments is the theme of the month it would seem 🙁

funny thing is that there are several smaller companies looking for staff. a couple have picked up the retrenched people, but there are many more still looking for new employees.

tylersmayhem2:45 pm 17 Dec 08

Yep, retrenchments is the theme of the month it would seem 🙁

tylersmayhem said :

Yes, in Canberra

I know of at least 5 guys & 2 girls currently looking for work. retrenchments do that to you. for some, it is the first time on the dole, ever.

tylersmayhem2:03 pm 17 Dec 08

Yes, in Canberra

Yes, but not in Canberra.

tylersmayhem1:23 pm 17 Dec 08

I know a couple actually.

do you actually know anyone who is struggling to find work, who is halfway presentable?

It gets trickier when you try to explain that some people on Newstart are seldom fabulous shop assistants, dish pigs or cleaners.

poptop said :

People on Newstart are seldom fabulous doctors, accountants, plumbers, teachers, nurses, etc, etc.

I can’t believe that you actually have to point this out to people.

People on Newstart are seldom fabulous doctors, accountants, plumbers, teachers, nurses, etc, etc.

Did Stanhope think to look at the fact – maybe we are short of skills because employers are too fussy at the moment and only want fully qualified staff. They’re not interested in training anyone.

Plus there are plenty of dole bludgers and people struggling to get jobs, why do they have to keep going overseas to recruit !?

As noted in another thread, it appears that quite a few of the foreign students gain their quals but insufficient English to be able to sustain jobs they are allegedly qualified to undertake. Previous media coverage of the issue indicates this is a particular problem for SE asian students.

jakez said :

farnarkler said :

Be very careful opening the door too wide.

…to experts or to immigrant labour?

If you open the door too wide, all the fat ones will get in.

farnarkler said :

Be very careful opening the door too wide.

…to experts or to immigrant labour?

caf said :

It seems to me that SE Asian parents sending their offspring here for an education probably more have their kids’ direct benefit in mind rather than their local economy as a whole.

True, but that’s not the level Mr. Stanhope will be spruiking at.

To regional governors it’s large amounts of money leaving the local economy AND the loss of a bright young thing.

Be very careful opening the door too wide.

Considering the expense of studying here (as they pay full fee and thus subsidise domestic students), I’m not sure that’s the type of situation where students would stay if they weren’t already planning on it. They’d have to come from a rich family anyway so is it a matter of not finding work in the ACT that is preventing them from staying?

I honestly have no idea. Call in the experts. Is this a good policy or just headline making?

It seems to me that SE Asian parents sending their offspring here for an education probably more have their kids’ direct benefit in mind rather than their local economy as a whole.

IDP Education have been wooing Foreign students here for years. They have been educated at either the ANU or UC, and some HAVE stayed. seems to me that perhaps the CM should see what is already going on in the education space, or perhaps he can do a better job of enticing these students to stay?

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