xander29

Hi,

My wife and I are looking into moving to oz and are looking for some help and guidance. I work within the rail industry and from what I am led to believe at the moment work is full on over there and there's a lack of people. My wife is a primary school teacher with 7 years experience and is currently a university lecturer.

We are looking at Melbourne, Sydney but we're open to wherever the jobs are. What are people's experiences at the moment on the kind of salary that would be required to live comfortably in the likes of Melbourne? I'm not sure of the visa situation but the companies I have spoken with have said they would cover all of that side. If moving to Melbourne is it better to stay closer to the city to avoid commuting costs?

My wife is also struggling to find appropriate contacts on who to speak with in regards to either university jobs or primary school jobs. Is there anyone who can give her some direction?

Any help and information would be appreciated

carcajou

For the part about university jobs, you need to provide more information about your wife's current circumstance.

What does she lecture in, and does she have a PhD (and if so from where - real university or diploma mill)? Does she have a publication record, what is the average size of the grants she's won?

For primary school jobs - primary teaching positions are currently facing a massive over-supply in the capital cities. Nonetheless, her first step would be to register with the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT). She doesn't need a visa to be able to do that, and I doubt many principals would spend much time talking to a potential teacher who isn't already registered with VIT.

On gaining registration, best thing to do would be to take a trip to Melbourne and contact a few primary principals directly and ask to speak with them. She will likely need to do relief at first, but if she's any good, a permanent position will eventually spring loose for her.

Sydney, same situation and process, though they have a process of "teacher accreditation" there and she will need to register with BOSTES (the NSW teachers registration board).

To give you an idea of the situation in Sydney for teachers - I live in Western Australia, currently in a huge economic downturn, yet we still get teachers coming here from Sydney because the job market for teachers is so difficult there.

xander29

Thanks for your response,

She currently has a 1st class honours in Primary Education. The current university will require her to complete a Phd but she hasn't started yet. The other points you have mentioned I am not sure about I will need to ask her. The university is ranked 4th in the UK for her subject matter.

I will get her to contact the places you have mentioned. Do you currently live in Melbourne? With regards to earnings and comfortable living what would be sufficient to live on in Melbourne?

Thanks Again

carcajou

If she hasn't started a PhD yet, she may want to consider doing so at an Australian university, which will then allow her to have an Australian supervisor, build a contact network here and also strengthen her local publication record. If she shows enough potential she might even be able to land an assistantship which would allow her to teach lower-level classes at the university while she does her studies, though that does not pay very much.

Unless she is lecturing at Oxford, Cambridge, or LSE, it doesn't matter that the university was ranked 4th in the UK for anything. Just matters what her record (and her network) is.

Similarly with teaching jobs, the principals won't care that she was 1st class honours in the UK, they will just want to know what she can do in Australia, and with so many applications for any open position, hiring an unknown from the UK is risky. That's why I say she will probably have to do relief (contact schools directly about that after registration) - the schools can then see her in action and if she's any good, she becomes the "safe" candidate for a position.

As I said in the last post, I live in Western Australia. The question of "how much to . . . " to quote a popular forum line is like to ask "how long is a piece of string." Teachers get paid decently in Australia so certainly that plus some income from you will be sustainable. Not a BMW lifestyle but definitely comfortable and sustainable. But it largely depends on what you want in your life.

The key for you will be to make sure you don't run out of money before you both land positions, or something to tide you over while you look for stable/decent paying positions. Much more difficult to land a (full) university lectureship than a teaching position.

geoff52

carcajou has given you sound advice. Your wife is very lucky to be a lecturer in a university without a Ph.D.
Personally in her position I would do the Ph.D. and continue teaching.
University Careers are cut throat business, with over supply of PH.D.s and under supply of permanent university positions.
I have been in the university professor for over 10 years and told my children to avoid academic career.

quoll

In UK honours could, historically, have been done in 3 years so if your wife's first degree is only 3 years, she won't be teaching anywhere, you need to have a 4 year first degree to be able to teach. Apart from that, there is a huge oversupply of Aussie trained (and potentially cheaper due to fewer years experience) teachers in places that people actually want to live. As to University, once she gets her PhD and has some publications under her belt she may get a look in

xander29

Thanks for the replies.

With regards to cost of living I was thinking is $150k enough to live on. That's only one salary.

As for my wife her degree is a four year primary education degree. Perhaps in England it's different but I'm not aware of anyone with a three year honours degree. She is already in the processs of speaking with some people at the moment I wasn't aware of this.

Thank you for replying

musicalfever4

I'm a secondary teacher, but I think primary teachers are in a even worse position regarding work. I did a TAFE course for overseas qualified teachers which included a 5-weeks placement at a school. Already that time I was fully registered, the Head of Department wanted me to stay, there was a position open for my subjects - and still I didn't get it. The principal made it clear:"With your experience you might be too expensive for us!" They hired a much younger teacher, with Australian qualifications but less salary. And we are talking about hiring a native speaker of their LOTE against someone local. Even with the advantage of being a native speaker of the foreign language they taught I didn't have a change - even after working there for 5 weeks.
I applied for more than 60 positions - after a year we went back home. I was just on parental leave and was able to return to my former job.

Pollyana

I know its a good few years ago now, but back when I was at university BA Honours degrees were mostly three years -I was friendly with a lot of students doing BA Education Honours degrees -this was in the UK..

Buzzy--Bee

Yes.

Many many people live very well on less.

carcajou

One other note about the PhD.

The quality of the university and the supervising committee is paramount, especially if one wants an academic career afterwards, and so the process typically works in that your wife would research and locate a potential supervisor who is an expert and capable of supervising a dissertation in the subset of the subset of the field she is planning to research, make a proposal, apply and go there if accepted.

Location of the university is a minor concern. It does not usually work that you move to Town X and then just apply whatever happens to be the local university, or that you apply to University X because you want to live in Town Y. Sure people do that but it's definitely not the best path forward for someone who wants an academic career.

Ignore things like university rankings in mass media publications, magazines or newspapers. What journalists look for is far different from what academics look for in a university. In a major research university you are judged on publications and grants, with teaching ability much further down the list.

Australia does have three world-class universities in the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University. If she is looking at others she needs to make sure the supervisor is excellent with a lengthy publication record in quality publications.