Meadows

Hi there Good luck on your migration experience and hopefully you will find something for both of you. I emigrated with my family in 2011 which included a 20 year old son. Despite a number of training courses (which we had to pay for) he is still unemployed after 2 years. The help from the government job agencies to help young people into work is pitiful. From my experience it is not what you know-but who you know- in that respect- Adelaide is very parochial. I may have work but my son still does not have a job. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but if I knew what I know now- I would probably not have come to South Australia.

Hi Nick I agree that you do not need to live right on top of it to make use of it. I live about 10 kms from the O Bahn at Tea Tree but if I go to town I always make a point of using the O-Bahn because it is so quick and gets you right into the heart of the city.

Hi Kelbert I do sympathise. I have a root canal to be completed on a back tooth which has 3 roots and my medical insurer will only pay for 1 of them to be treated. I therefore have been quoted $2000 to finish it off here. I am going for a visit to the UK next month- my private dentist in the UK has quoted me £400 to complete the job. Guess which option I am going for?

Hi there We have private health including dental with BUPA. I need a root canal finishing off- partly done- normal dentist refused to finish it. Referred me to a consultant dentist who wants $2000 to finish it. There are apparently 3 roots in this tooth and BUPA will only pay the work on one of them. So far I am unable to afford to get it fixed. It would be cheaper to go back to my UK private dentist! Just back from UK for a visit to family- saw my UK private dentist- root canal finished-£240-worth every penny.

Hi Deryans I do so agree with you about employer expectations. Several years ago I applied for an advertised admin job with a local charity and I passed the 2ndd stage of interviews. Then I received an email telling me that they had decided they really needed a qualified nurse for this admin post. The actual job spec only asked for degree level health and social welfare with medical Admin experience, both qualifications I held. Not surprisingly I did not get the job. I have a 24 year old son who has been unemployed for nearly 2 years now. He has a number of TAFE qualifications, full driving licence, and white card; he himself has paid for a forklift licence and Tag & Test qualification and a number of police checks. What does make me angry is the number of recruitment agencies who insist on a police check which is less than 3 months old. In order to apply for a job such as production worker- he has to regularly reapply for police checks out of his own money. He is registered with a job provider (as mandated by Centrelink) and despite nearly 500 job applications he has found no work. His job provider has found him nothing and despite their promises of trades Work experiences-this never materialized. He has tried ring companies asking for work experience. One Company only would take him on if he worked for no pay for 6 months and called him idle and lazy when he politely refused. Another employer only wanted him to work a small driving job -off the books- no paperwork to be completed. He has completed 6 months “Work for the Dole” at a shop of a well-known charity where he was only allowed to sort out donated goods for sale and of course this led to no job at the end of it. He is now looking at yet another 6 months for this “employer”, which if he refuses- his money will be stopped. Not surprisingly, both he and I are pretty disillusioned about job prospects for young people in SA- no wonder working age people move interstate.

Hi there Thank you for your replies, Tamara and Jessica. As my son is no longer at TAFE, there is no way he could be notified by his lecturer, he did ask while at TAFE but there was nothing available at that time, and if jobs are not advertised- how does one apply for them? My son has tried Woolworths etc to no avail. He has passed the assessment for Peer Veet but an interview failed to achieve a position. He is registered with ATEC, AIGTS, Tabma, and other group training organisations such as Maxima and Statewide . He applies for job positions regularly for all of these companies. He has just completed a First Aid course to add to his accomplishments. He has not yet changed his job provider as talking to some of his unemployed friends, there are other companies who are even worse than the one with whom he is registered. The latest from his job provider- he should apply for 50 jobs per month. When he pointed out that there were not 50 jobs available for which he was qualified- he was told to apply anyway. Irrespective of the fact he is not qualified for the jobs suggested. What a waste of his time and for the employers they have to sort through applications who do not need even the basic criteria for the position. He told me recently that he sees no future in the job market form him and it is only his hobbies that are keeping him sane.

Hi Jessica Well- my son has been looking for work/apprenticeship coming up 2 years now by Xmas. He volunteers one day per week and that has not led to anything. His job provider, courtesy of Centrelink, has not found him anything and by Jan 16 he will start yet another 6 months Work for the Dole, the last Work for the Dole scheme he finished in July 15. The only suggestion his job provider came up with recently was that he enrols on an business course which would give him a HECS debt of $25000. I found that rather ironic- he has no job and they want him to go into debt for $25000. He recently paid for a First Aid course to add to his resume, which comprises 6 Cert 2s in various trade skills, Fork Lift licence, White Card, current police check, full driving licence and a Tag & Test course qualification. I was looking at the Career One in the Advertiser today. On page 2 is the headline "Secure Your Future", an article encouraging young people to become apprentices. However the paper itself did not advertise a single apprentice job! Young people like my son would love to become a trade apprentice but companies are just not taking on apprentices. Goodness knows what the job situation will be like when Holden finally closes it doors!

Hi there I agree with you- I often would like to post something but many people see any criticism of Adelaide/Australia as being unduly negative,and to be quite honest some of the posts on here make me hesitate to actually post anything. What I will say, is that I have a 23 year old out of work for over 2 years and a relative who is a highly qualified manager also out of work for the same time in Adelaide. My son has lots of TAFE courses to his credit, police check, full driving licence, car, and forklift licence. His so-called job provider (a condition of signing on with Centrelink) organised a recent seminar where they invited a group of unemployed people to meet together to network each other to see if they could provide any leads for work for themselves! He has had 6 months on work for the dole which led to precisely nothing. If you have a job great- otherwise beware- even if you get a job, your children may not.

Hi Nobby Just going through the same process myself. 25 % tax free but taxed on the remaining 75%, even though not a UK tax payer. According to the paperwork I received from my pension provider, you can download a form from the HMRC website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/income-tax-forms. Not sure what happened when I pressed post but the middle part of the web site is collections/income. The form incidentally is an R43. According to my accountant, once I get my UK tax back- the ATO will want their share of the monetary gain on the pension since I left I left the UK/granted PR and the date I cash it in. Obviously no escaping tax man either in the UK or here. Cheers

Hi Jessica I would say the unemployment figure is a lot higher than that quoted. I have seen it first hand, that these figures only count people signing on with Centrelink- if you do not qualify to sign on with them - if for example your partner works full time, they do not allow you to sign on. I know this to be true of a qualified engineer who is a family member who has been unemployed for over a year and therefore is not one of those who are counted as unemployed. You know what they say," Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics".

Hello Vikkiann I presume that your comment was "tongue in cheek"? I have a 23 year old who has been looking for trade assistant/apprenticeship work for 3 years now- despite having 5 Cert 2s in trades skills, fork lift licence, current police check and full driving licence. He does not surf, smoke a joint or sit on his butt- as he is too busy doing work for the dole, and volunteering at a local hospital in the rest of his spare time. He is however still looking for work, but there is precious little out there and he has many friends who are in the same position as him.

Hi Scousemouse I do so agree with you about how difficult it is for young people to get a foot on the job ladder. I have a 23 year old who is still looking for work after a year on the dole despite having 5 Cert 2s from TAFE, current police check, forklift licence, and full driving licence. Like yourself I really do believe it is who you know. My best wishes for your children, here's hoping they find something soon!

Hi Clare After 4 years here- Hurrah!, our family have just submitted our citizenship applications in person at Immigration at Franklin Street in Adelaide. We asked about the book to revise for the test and were told that there is no such book and to research on the web for information. We were told acknowledgements will be weeks away, test invite months in the future and ceremony would be minimum of 9 months as they were very busy. What we were told does not match reports on here, it would seem, on how the process works. We will just have to be patient.

Just watched the programme tonight about Job Providers. I found it quite disturbing- I have a son who is on the dole, has to report to his Job Provider every fortnight with 10 jobs applied for and with all documentation to substantiate this and all rejections. After a year, they have found him no jobs, offered him no courses, or work experience and now he does 2 days per week "work for the dole" working in a charity shop doing shelf stacking. He has 5 Cert IIs in various trade skills, a White Card, full driving licence and access to transport and has paid for his own forklift course, and has a current police check. The job provider did offer him some volunteer work doing recovery work in the hills but he had to supply all his own work clothing and equipment from an extensive list as they had no money in their budget and my son would have to pay for this himself. He was supposed to attend a half day workshop with them on how to dress for interviews but they cancelled it after people had showed up as they had no money to run it. To keep himself busy he works in truly volunteer capacity at a local hospital one day per week as well, (not that it is counted towards his work for the dole). The amount of money these organisations receive from the govt is in the billions, and it seems they continue to receive money even if he finds himself a job- What a racket!

Hello there I fully agree with you. I have a 23 year old looking for a trainee/apprentice job for the last 3 years and employers are are not willing to take on trainees now. What's going to happen when they can just fly in/fly out someone from overseas for a specific job? There will be no incentive to train local people for this specialised task?