Increase in employer-sponsored skilled migrants

A new report has found Australia’s migration program is more effectively meeting the needs of employers with a 60 per cent increase in the number of employer-sponsored skilled migrants to Australia in 2008-09 compared with the previous year.

The Report on Migration Program 2008-09 shows that the Rudd Government’s targeted approach to overseas workers is helping to fill critical skills gaps in the healthcare, engineering, financial services and IT sectors.

The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said that changes introduced in January including the Critical Skills List (CSL) of high value occupations and prioritising employer-sponsored or state/territory-sponsored skilled migration visa grants were having a significant impact.

Overseas workers who were sponsored by employers comprised 33 per cent of the 2008-09 skill stream compared to 22 per cent in 2007-08 and 17 per cent in 2006-07.
“A properly targeted migration program will ensure we have the right sized and appropriately skilled labour force to meet Australia’s needs now and into the future as our economy recovers and grows.”

The Government cut the 2008-09 permanent skilled migration intake in March 2009 by 14 per cent from 133 500 to 115 000 and reduced planning levels for the permanent skilled migrant intake in the overall 2009-10 migration program to 108 100 places.

“This is in direct response to the economic slowdown and represents an overall drop of almost 20 per cent on previous planning levels,” Senator Evans said.

“The migration intake in the coming year reflects the economic conditions while ensuring employers can gain access to skilled professionals in industries still experiencing skills shortages such as healthcare and engineering. “The reduction is being achieved through a cutback in places in independent skilled migration rather than in the high-demand employer-sponsored category or in areas in which Australia has critical skills shortages.”

Across all permanent skilled visa categories, the top three occupations for successful applicants were accountancy (6238), computing professionals (3879) and registered nurses (3355) while the top three countries of citizenship under the skill stream were the United Kingdom (23 178), India (20 105) and China (13 927).

“Australia’s migration program is better targeting the needs of Australian employers who are still experiencing skill shortages,” Senator Evans said.

Source  :  www.manmonthly.com.au

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

What is Australian JobSearch?

JobSearch is Australia’s largest free online jobs website.

 It is funded and operated by the Australian Government as a free service to assist job seekers into employment and connect employers with quality staff.

Job Services Australia providers and public employers upload their job vacancies to JobSearch and search for potentially suitable staff.

Job seekers can search for jobs via the map on the homepage by choosing their state, local area and occupation category. The advanced search function includes more detail in searching criteria.

Everyone is welcome to use JobSearch to search for vacancies. It’s free to register and take advantage of the complete range of services.

Vacancies displayed on JobSearch come from many different sources, including:                                                                   

• public employers
• Job Services Australia providers
• newspapers
• the Australian Public Service
• the Australian Defence Force
• the Harvest Trail.

For job seekers

JobSearch has a range of features to help you search for a job, including:

• free registration for all Australians seeking work
• jobs across all industries and regions of Australia
• your own personal page, where you can create a job match profile, upload your resume and use our instant job list to find jobs based on your skills and experience
• links to employment assistance and information for all job seekers.

For employers

JobSearch has a number of features to help you find the right person for your job, including:

• the ability to search for staff based on criteria in your advertisement using our find staff feature
• high visibility of your jobs – with around 1 million people visiting JobSearch each month
• a secure personal page to manage your advertised jobs or view past jobs
• phone help from the Employer Hotline 13 17 15 to advertise new jobs or check the status of your existing jobs.
• http://jobsearch.gov.au

Read Full Post »

Contributory Parent Visas – the end of the split family loophole

DIAC have just announced that the anyone obtaining their Contributory Parent Visa after 1 July and then planning to sponsor an existing partner will be faced with a potential 5 year wait. What this means, as an initial response, is that people going down that route who have not included an existing spouse in the application should be doing so immediately.

This is the text of the announcement:

Amendments to the Migration Regulations 1994 in relation to Contributory Parent visas and split applications

1 July 2009 Legislation Change

Client summary

From 1 July 2009, the Migration Regulations 1994 (the ‘Regulations’) are amended to prevent persons who are granted a permanent Contributory Parent category visa (Subclasses 143 and 864) from sponsoring their partner or fiancé for a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa for five years from the day of their visa grant, if they:

* were granted their permanent Contributory Parent category visa on or after 1 July 2009; and
* were in a spouse or de facto partner or fiancé relationship on or before the date their permanent Contributory Parent category visa was granted and now wish to sponsor that partner or fiancé.

This limitation may not apply in compelling circumstances which are not financially related.

Additional information:
There have been a number of instances in which couples seeking to migrate under the Contributory Parent category visa provisions have resorted to the split application strategy, whereby:

* only one member of a parent couple applies for and is granted a permanent Contributory Parent category visa; and
* once eligible (usually after two years of being lawfully resident in Australia), this parent subsequently sponsors their spouse (the other parent) under the partner visa category which has a much smaller Visa Application Charge (VAC).

Up until 1 July 2009, this strategy is not prohibited by migration legislation and it is being used in order to reduce the costs associated with migration under Contributory Parent category visa. However, it clearly undermines the Government’s policy intent of ensuring that those parents who migrate under the Contributory Parent visa category make a contribution by means of the VAC to partially offset the significant costs of parent migration to the broader community. Contributory Parent migrants are also subject to the provision of a ten year Assurance of Support (AoS) and payment of a bond.

Furthermore, those who lodge a split application benefit by by-passing the ten year waiting period for parent visa holders to access Government benefits and assistance, whilst spouse visa holders are able to access such benefits within two years of visa grant.

Amendments are being made to information products affected by this legislative change.

Source  :  http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=616147

Read Full Post »

A Coffee in the Park – Playgrounds in Perth, Western Australia

This site is a guide to finding coffee in Perth’s playgrounds and parks, created by a Perth family.

We are a family of two children who love playgrounds, and two parents who love coffee. We made this website to tell other parents of places we have found in Perth where you have coffee in the park while the kids play on the playground. 

New changes – over the Easter weekend we changed the menus – the list of parks is getting bigger and we have divided it up into a Perth Playgrounds South and Perth Playgrounds North menu.  We are also compiling a list of great parks without coffee – due to the huge number of suggestions we have received from parents across Perth. 

What counts as a coffee in the park?                                                                                      

To count as an official ‘coffee in the park’ a park need to have two essential criteria – a playground and a nearby source of takeaway espresso coffee. The two must be no more than a short walk from each other. These free public parks are listed in the two Perth Playgrounds menus. 

We also know of many other great playgrounds that unfortunately don’t have a built-in source of caffeine, so while they don’t qualify as a coffee in the park, we have created a new category for the site called Great Parks – No Coffee and will soon list them here. 

Under the Other Cool Places menu we have included places to play that are ‘pay for entry’ or which are fun places to play, without actually being formal playgrounds.

www.acoffeeinthepark.com

Read Full Post »