Little Lisa 1971

Hi, can anyone give me some information on training to become a nurse in Perth. My Daughter will have just sat her GCSE's when we move to Perth in August 2012. She will be 17yrs old the following month and we are trying to work out what her best options are!

I believe she will go into Year 11 in High School (Aug 2012) but I am worried about this as she will of missed more than half the year and she may not acheive a good result in her WACE by the end of Year 12. Does anyone know if there is a way she can extra credits to make up for missing half of year 11? She is a bright girl and is predicted to get As & Bs in her GCSE's. At the moment the Kirsty is thinking about a career in Nursing or Physiotherapy.

Is nurse training the same as in the UK? 3yrs in a nurse training centre with a paid bursary or 4yrs in Uni for a degree in nursing? I am trying to work out would she need to acheive her WACE or could she go straight into Nurse training at 17yrs old? I know if she chooses Physiotherapy she will have to get her WACE and then go to Uni.

I'd really appreciate any help or advice, I've tried e-mailing a couple of schools in Perth and I got the same reply of "your daughter will be place in Year 11" but no answers to my concerns.

Thanks

Hsherriff

Too get into UNI to qualify to do any course you have to have completed school to a certain level or you can take an exam. I wouldnt be to worried. We lived in Belgium before moving here and my Daughter was old enough not to attend school here so she just sat the Tertiary Entrance Exam and passed. She is in her second year of Nursing.
Each Uni has a diff pass mark you have to get in the exam.
If she is over 20 when she wants to start Uni. then here is how they can get in
http://www.ecu.edu.au/future-student...entry-pathways

good luck..

debbieuk

also i dont think they get a bursary here ... we have student nurses all the time and i think one actually said they have to pay for their placements !!!!!

they have to have a 'HEX' (i think) loan and a job..thats why Australia has no nurses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we have 16 vacancies in our dept and can't find an RN for love nor money so good career choice

deb

Weebie

Its very easy to get into University here in Perth especially in nursing which is basically an international class room with few local students.

I wouldn't worry.

ozhappy981

Perth has a number of universities offering nursing courses:

Curtin: http://courses.curtin.edu.au/course_...ideHeader=true

Murdoch:
http://www.murdoch.edu.au/Courses/Nursing/

Edith Cowan:
http://www.ecu.edu.au/future-student...ZWwmYWxsPTE%3D

I would check with each uni what their requirements are for someone from the UK to get into the nursing course.

Little Lisa 1971

I believe she will go into Year 11 in High School (Aug 2012) but I am worried about this as she will of missed more than half the year and she may not acheive a good result in her WACE by the end of Year 12. Does anyone know if there is a way she can extra credits to make up for missing half of year 11? She is a bright girl and is predicted to get As & Bs in her GCSE's.

Does anyone have any knowledge or advice on the above situation? If anyone has any information I'd be really grateful. x

HelenTD

You will have to get in contact with the WA Education Department. They have a section called Schools of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) http://www.side.wa.edu.au/index.html. One of their links about eligibility for enrolment had a section where the student was living or travelling overseas, and it asked for a visa number. Some WA parents parents home-school their kids, for various reasons, so there will also be a section supporting parents for that.

You will need to find out the differences between the UK and WA curricula, so that she can cover what she needs to before her arrival. There may be only small differences, depending on her subjects. I can put you in touch with an education consultant if you need one.

Little Lisa 1971

Thanks very much Helen, I'll take a look at the link and get in touch x

coolerkingcooler

I believe that the WACE would be good to achieve (re your initial post) as the SACE (South Australian Cert Ed) is increasingly becoming the norm for many forms of further study/education - even trade apprenticeships. TAFE will recognise it as will universities.

Possibly just as important, it will give your daughter time to settle and make friends etc as well as learn in a new environment.

Best of luck on your planning and journey,
Cooler

Dorothy

No, they don't get a bursary. And no, they don't pay for their placements. They do not get paid while doing a placement, so if they are normally working and have to take the time off work for a placement they will miss out on that pay.

HECS loans are for citizens only. It is a scheme where you defer the costs of higher education and only start paying it back once you earn over a certain amount. And sorry to say, I'm pretty sure that's not why Australia has no nurses. I would think it has more to do with the relatively low wages.

lauralollipop

I agree with Dorothy, I have almost completed my nursing degree, have a huge hecs debt and will not think of working as a nurse now as I actually got paid more in my job which I gave up to do nursing and that didn't involve any of the crappy shifts they expect you to do here! they pay really is poor

You can either get into uni by application (which I did) or you can sit an entrance exam which I think is maths based. I don't think its easy to get into nursing here, its quite competitive, I actually applied to the TAFE to do EN (which is cheeper) and was refused a place as I didn't have a good enough maths GCSE result, but luckily I got into uni as mature student on my application form.

You can get HECS loans if you are citizen, but if you are not you have to pay your fees up front which is quite expensive, also books, uniforms and prac placements end up costing a fortune too! I studied nursing both here and in UK at uni and my advice would be to do nursing in UK before you come to Aus as you get your fees paid and you get bursary, the uniform was free and you were reimbursed by the NHS for any placements costs......here is ZILCH!

I just wish I had of finished my degree in UK instead of rushing off to Aus and having to do it all again for double the cost

HelenTD

Laura, I hope that you do finish your degree, even if you do it one unit per semester. A partly-finished degree is worth very little; a completed degree can be used to lead into other things, even if you don't do nursing. I thought that you could earn good rates as an agency nurse, even one night a week could bring in some useful cash. Did you get recognition of prior learning for your UK study?

geordiebloke

Nurses pay is pathetic here, though marginally less pathetic than nurses pay in the UK.

lauralollipop

hi Helen,
how r u?

Yes I am definitely going to finish the degree here, as I only have 9 units to complete now, and as you say once I have my degree I can go into anything, I am looking at jobs in research or even doing further study, might fancy teaching health studies, so may even do a post grad education thinggie. I did a year and half in the UK and only got credit for 4 units which was poo as I had learnt much more there than here and I had to repeat alot of stuff which I already had done in UK. I also got nothing towards all the prac hours I had done too, which sucked too.

I am taking this semester off to have the baby and then I am doing a couple of on line units in July then, I only have my prac units to do the year after, so will get there eventually

Jacqui

Schools can be flexible about which year you go into. Given that you are arriving in August, most of year 11 will be over, and October and November will be taken up with end-of-year exams before they break up for Xmas. We arrived in the July and couldn't enrol our children at school straightaway because we were temporarily living with my sister in a completely different town to where we were going to settle, and instead waited until we moved into our new house, then they started school in September, at the beginning of Term 4. It appears that no-one (the authorities) check up on whether your kids have started at school yet or not. We let the children enjoy their 6-week break and it gave them chance to settle down. We have two lots of friends (from England and from South Africa) who had the same dilemma as you - didn't want to start their children towards the end of Year 11. In both cases, they were enrolled for Year 11 at the start of the following year, so that they could complete a full two years (of Years 11 and 12), these two years being so important for entrance into tertiary education. It meant that they were slightly older than the other children, but it's fairly common here for children to repeat years in primary school, because they haven't made the grade, so chances are there will be others the same age.

To get into uni, you need an ATAR score higher than the uni cut-off score (which differs from uni to uni) which is taken from your 4 best-scoring WACE exams - you can do a maximum of 6, but most children do 5. (You might hear people talking about the TER score, or TEE exams which is what they were called up until last year.) My daughter is doing a Bachelor of Midwifery and she went straight from school to uni, likewise for Bachelor of Nursing and any others in this field. Nursing is a 3-year degree, available at Curtin and Edith Cowan in Perth, and Murdoch in Mandurah.

If your daughter starts Year 11 at the beginning of 2013, that would mean starting uni at the beginning of 2015. Is there a chance you could have gained your Australian citizenship by then (or she could take a gap year if you have to wait until 2016)? Then she will be eligible for a HECS loan.