z3phron

Well, if tony and his crew do get into power.
http://www.gettingdownunder.com/2010...ts-into-power/

They will cut migration numbers for sure.

With regards to the population increase due to the influx of migrants, i do not know if it will bring more good than harm.

Having said that however, look at china. Graduates who come out of uni struggling to get work in certain cities.

Australia is still a fairly small country compared to other developed nations like the USA whose population stands at around 300mils.


Let's face it, the education industry in Australia is one of the biggest revenue generators for the economy.

International students have to pay around AUD29k a year for an engineering degree.)

JoeBlogsOfOz

Come on guys, what is the way out for accounting gradutes who have invested thousands of dollars (average 35 thousand for a two year course)? I dont think any of them saw this coming? Requiring a 7 in each of the four modules of Acadamic IELTS from accountants only is a deliberate act to push the accountant numbers down? What do you propose for these accounting gradutes? No 7, no visa, go home? or invest more money in another student visa to try buying some more time to have more attempts on IELTS?

And what do you think of Accounting bodies jumping in making IELTS 7 compulsory for assessment? Shouldn't it have been left to immigration to make a decision? I think they acted in a hurry to make sure Immigration doesn't take the accounting out of SOL?

INDOAUS

Qualified (registered) accountants certainly have a better chance of landing a job, if they have sufficient English. However, from a personal point of view, there is only a dearth of those so called qualified (registered) accountants with a high level of English - it is highly likely there is only a small number in this pool and oz will unlikely solve the shortage of accountants, in a short - mid term, if they rely on this pool
If the number of people nominating accountant does not fall after raising the english requirement then DIAC might impose a work experience prequisite. Immi dept, IMHO, did not introduce work experience req and raise the english requirement contemporaneously since there might only be insufficient applicants.
As most of those applying for visa are from non-english speaking countries, one of the most effective method of reducing the influx of accountants migrating to oz is through raising the ielts score.

JoeBlogsOfOz

Totally agree !

Whats in your signature? it says you got visa on 22/10/10 ? did immigration told you six months earlier that they will give you visa in October?

INDOAUS

Sorry, I sent her coz she was a qualified accountant (registered in china) with ielts 6 (GT). Next time I'll try with a higher level of English but please be patient since there is only a small number of those and might be even harder with to find with a qualified accountant attribute.

azakir

I think accounting profession should be off the SOL.

I voluntarily printed out new changes and provided those some of the student from our country wishing to study MPA for getting PR.
As I know accounting is not their favorate subject and they have very low ielts score ( in our country most of the students in business school treat accounting as boring and I can remember in my accounting class there are only 5 out of 105 students took accounting as major ). Besides, I am astonished to see that for this so called boring subject they like to spend thousands of dollars with the hope for PR.

Also in our country there is high demand for qualified accountants. ( you may ask me why I like to go? I like to go there for higher study for international exposure and to me this PR route is the cheapest for me. Since I do not have enough money for higher study.)

JoeBlogsOfOz

Yes Zakir I totally understand what you are saying, and I would say you are doing a good job by spreading the word........I would hate to see some poor un-informed students spend so much money to come to Australia to study accounting and then finding out about these tough English requirments later on. I bet visa agents or universities will not go out of their way to inform potential accounting students about these changes!

Cheers

freebo

But that's the ting isn't it? Right now accountancy courses are a scam way of getting a visa IMHO. Anyone with sufficient money and intelligence can come & do an accountancy course in Australia for 3/5k or whatever amount then qualify for a GSM visa, without at least strong English they will be no use in the workforce that the visa is trying to address. Most other occupations require qualifications AND many years of work experience.

All of this is why accountancy has been on the SOL for ages but there's still a shortage of accountants, because the conditions are too slack and those who get in via thgis route don't/can't end up working as accountants.

Bermudashorts

I am not going to employ somebody in a professional environment who cannot speak fluent English and neither would anyone else with any sense. I won't apologise for that, if I had introduced a new member of the team that did not speak, read and write fluent English I would have been a laughing stock amongst some colleagues and in serious trouble with others.

Speaking, reading and writing in fluent English is an absolute must in my work environment. And that is in London which is an extremely multi-cultural city.

I would simply suggest that whilst immigration allows people with lower standards of English in, they might still need to spend a few months improving their skills before securing professional employment. As I have said already, I don't have a strong opinion on whether IELTS standards should be raised, because once somebody is in the country, speaking English every day, watching English TV, readnig English newspapers the language skills will come.

sadieb

I worked in Melbourne for several years and was still astounded by the amount of interpreters I had to use every day in a hospital setting.
Almost 90% of my case load of patients were not able to communicate in English.
The thing that astounded me the most was that they had been in Australia 50 years plus.
Yes I get the idea that the Greeks, Italians, etc came over in the 50's and just worked together so they never spoke English, but did they not realise that they would get old one day and have to communicate with doctors nurses etc in English.
I think Australia needs to educate the citizens it already has before dictating to the new ones that want to apply.
I also worked with numerous doctors who could only communicate in very broken English, so no one understood them.
They should have been tested.

Si T

While I fully agree with all the changes being introduced regarding the Accounting profession I would also like to see some sort of transitional period whereby those international students currently in the system are given the opportunity to achieve their goals. A proviso of this would be that over a period of time, similar to state sponsorship, they would have to show that once graduating they have at least made a concerted effort to go on and become qualified accountants. Maybe they could be given a time period in which to further qualify as accountants and then be awarded PR.

While I am in the fortunate position of being a UK born CPA (AUS) with the correct IELTS levels I find it grossly unfair that those students already studying in Australia could have the rug pulled from under them. Knee jerk reactions help no-one and this needs to be thought out a bit more.

Good luck

Si

azakir

That is why my first priority will be higher study and then job.

I will try to get accounting jobs. However I have more than 3 years experience in financial accounting side of a vertically integrated textile company which has more than 10,000 labor force. But this will not work in AUS.

I admire I will try hard but if circumstances require I have to do other jobs.

( for your kind information at this moment ielts coaching centers are in very critical position in our country and immigration consultancy too)

INDOAUS

No, you shouldn't apologize. UK is an English speaking country, why should anyone be hired if they can not speak English at a sufficient level. What I'm trying to point out is that its very difficult to find someone with a high level of English that is a registered accountant. Since the Oz Govt. perhaps has 3 choices to cut the number of accountants 1) raise ielts 2) mandatory work experience as accountant without raising ielts 3) mandatory work experience as accountant + raising ielts. The 3rd choice (the perfect choice) would likely to have resulted in a dearth of applicants which would exacerbate the skill shortage in this field. The 2nd would result in a case similar to what we discussed - qualified but no communication. The first choice would result in applicants with the academic skills but required some training. However, applicants from the first category have the English ability to follow the training instructions.

There is a caveat to the opinion in the 3rd paragraph. Most qualified accountants are likely to be aged 30 or higher and as people get older it becomes much more difficult to learn a second language. Furthermore, most people, that have a low to medium level of English and tried to learn english for a very long time, do not have the propensity to read or watch in an English medium. I have parents that studied master by research in an English speaking country for more than 3 years. However, their english only had immaterial improvement. Hence, there is no guarantee those "qualified accountants" (if they are aged >30) with low to medium level of english will try to learn English once they have arrived in oz, even with the many language resources in the country.

I come from a non English speaking background and I find English is a very difficult language to learn as my my language has a different syntax. However, I do not oppose that the english requirement has been raised. It is unfair that only accounting and several other professions are expected to have a high level of english.

freebo

Well your English is superb I have to say, better than some of us English born natives!

Medical staff are a special case, any misunderstanding could have very serious consequenses but all GSM applicants should have functional English, and it sounds like the professional experience requirement for accountants also needs to be raised significantly!

38141

Where is the best place to prepare and sit this ielts exam?

This question aimed in particular towards Bermudashorts