Desperately need advice
 

Basically my position is that I've been to Australia on a WHMV and I fell in love with the place (who couldn't!).

I've been working in IT for about 18mths but have now decided that as well as finding this totally boring the whole IT market, especially in Australia, seems to be in a real slump. So, although I have already got a degree I have now made up my mind to go back to study and this time I'm going to stick with what I wanted to do in school, which is nursing. It appears that nursing is a profession in demand in Australia and I figure that if I do my nursing qualification out there then I'll have a pretty good chance of remaining there.

Of course, this is going to involve a large sum of money, as the course I'm looking at is 2 years. However, I will have enough for the first year (it's in Adelaide by the way) but would struggle to fund myself for a further year. My dilema is whether to risk it and hope that I find work or some way of supporting myself, or to give up on my dream and stay here in the UK for at least the next 4yrs. I'm very tempted to just take the risk because if I don't I'll always wonder how things might have turned out.

Anyway, my questions to everyone are:

1. Do you think I'm totally mad???

2. Does anyone know whether after doing a certain amount of the course you can obtain work as a nursing assistant?

3. Most importantly, does anyone have any advice on the money situation - are there any Australian banks that offer loans to overseas students or UK banks that offer loans to people wishing to study abroad???

Cheers for any advice/info etc

Lisa

Re: Desperately need advice
 

Hi Lisa

Firstly, I'm afraid I have no knowledge or advice I can pass on, but I just had to say that if it is at all possible....just GO FOR IT!!

No I don't think you are mad, I think it's going to be a fantastic adventure and experience....we only get one shot at life...might as well do something we really want to achieve!!

There are people on this forum who will be able to point you in the right direction, I just wanted to show you a bit of support and I really hope it works out and you can get some work to fund your second year...sounds likely, but then who knows the workings of DIMIA's rules :)

Good luck anyway

love sophia xx

Re: Desperately need advice
 

Hi Lisa,
You are not mad and I think you should just go for it. Sounds like you will regret it if you don't. I don't see any reason why you would not be able to either get a job whilst training or getting a job as an assistant after a year, they may even train you on the job. I would not worry too much about all that at the moment,- just get an application in!

Re: Desperately need advice
 

Hi Lisa
I'm a nurse and you don't need any qualifications to be a nursing assistant, so there is nothing to stop you funding your way by doing this.

However, please bear in mind that nurse training is very intensive and demanding, both physically and mentally, and you will have assignments, exams and placement objectives to contend with all at the same time, so you wouldn't have enough hours in the day to take up a full time nursing assistant post.

Also I don't know that when you are in Oz to study, if you are allowed to work at the same time, maybe George Lombard or Alan Collett can answer that one. If you can and you think you can hack it then I say go for it, at the end of the day nursing's a very rewarding job and I wish you luck. If you wish to email me privately I'll be happy to give you any information I can.
Sue

Re: Desperately need advice
 

Although nursing may be a very rewarding job, it is also very frustrating (in the uk). As sue said, the training is very intensive and a large amount of student nurses drop out because of this.
I myself trained at the Royal London 14 years ago and now work in Worcester. I cannot wait to get out of the NHS and experience nursing in Aus. I have no idea whether you would get funding in Aus for your second year but If you have the slightest possibility that you can, then i would say go for it. I think you will find nursing in Aus a lot more rewarding than here in the uk. We always seem to be working with our hands tied !!
I wish you every bit of luck and hope you succeed...

Ali....

Re: Desperately need advice
 

Hi Lilly A few points:

1. You will be required to pay overseas student fees in Australia. These are higher
than those charged to Australians.

2. The ANCI website is at http://www.anci.org.au Have a look at it.

3. Bear in mind that immigration rules may not be the same in a few years time as
they are now.

4. You should work out whether its feasible for you to migrate to Australia on the
basis of your current qualifications or work experience. If you arrived in
Australia as a permanent resident you could study nursing more cheaply in
Australia. You should perhaps talk to a migration agent who should be able to
assess you in detail and tell you whether or not you should go for migration
based on your current qualifications/experience, or do further study or work in
your current field of expertise.

5. It's not a good idea to embark on a course of study without having a pretty clear
idea of how you're going to finance it. A half completed course is virtually
useless if you abandon it.

6. If you want to train as a nurse and go for PR later on, you should weigh up
very carefully doing the course in the UK versus Australia, especially in
terms of cost.

7. Getting a loan in Australia is going to be difficult as a temporary resident.
UK banks will also be reluctant to lend to you in Australia. In the UK there
are Career Development Loans available I think, you might wanrt to look at
this option.

Life is about taking risks, but they should be calculated risks.

Jeremy

    >On 19 Jul 2002 18:20:12 GMT, lilly <[email protected]> wrote: Basically my
    >position is that I've been to Australia on a WHMV and I fell in love with the place
    >(who couldn't!).
    >
    >I've been working in IT for about 18mths but have now decided that as well as
    >finding this totally boring the whole IT market, especially in Australia, seems to
    >be in a real slump. So, although I have already got a degree I have now made up my
    >mind to go back to study and this time I'm going to stick with what I wanted to do
    >in school, which is nursing. It appears that nursing is a profession in demand in
    >Australia and I figure that if I do my nursing qualification out there then I'll
    >have a pretty good chance of remaining there.
    >
    >Of course, this is going to involve a large sum of money, as the course I'm looking
    >at is 2 years. However, I will have enough for the first year (it's in Adelaide by
    >the way) but would struggle to fund myself for a further year. My dilema is whether
    >to risk it and hope that I find work or some way of supporting myself, or to give up
    >on my dream and stay here in the UK for at least the next 4yrs. I'm very tempted to
    >just take the risk because if I don't I'll always wonder how things might have
    >turned out.
    >
    >Anyway, my questions to everyone are:
    >
    >1. Do you think I'm totally mad???
    >
    >2. Does anyone know whether after doing a certain amount of the course you can
    > obtain work as a nursing assistant?
    >
    >3. Most importantly, does anyone have any advice on the money situation - are there
    > any Australian banks that offer loans to overseas students or UK banks that offer
    > loans to people wishing to study abroad???
    >
    >Cheers for any advice/info etc
    >
    >Lisa
    >
    >
    >
    >--