Attention Aussies: Do you know anything about this?

This is an article that keeps popping up in U.S. newspapers. It looks interesting. And while I don't have the skills mentioned, I'm wondering if teachers are in demand in parts of Australia.

Are you guys still going through a financial boom?

http://news.yahoo.com/calling-americas-builders-australia-needs-081141817.html

I don't know how this ended up in the bike section. Sorry about that. I meant it to go upstairs in the general discussion.

We are, but its starting to taper off, with the reserve bank (our equivalent of the Federal Reserve) cutting rates a tiny bit to help the non mining states.

I saw that article in the paper this morning as well.

My feel on the ground is that despite concerns over a two speed economy things are still unusually well here. Rather than 'Boom' vs 'Recession' it's more like 'big boom' vs 'mini boom'. Unlike 2008-2009, where at any one time 2-3 of my friends were between jobs, it's now been 9 months since I heard any of my friends who didn't have a job lined up before they left their old one.

Teachers - especially male teachers for private boys school have been in short supply for a very long time. Unfortunately, I believe there is a bridging course you need to do to get you in line with our education system.

Do your own investigation obviously, but from a local on the ground, I can tell you things do feel pretty positive

It's always been a serious thought in my mind to try Australia. I grew up with a lot of Aussies and am a life-long surfer who grew up idolizing many, many Australians (and, yes, I liked Paul Hogan, even though I'm sure his character may have been exaggerated).

Mark Richards still holds a lot of my imagination in the way he surfs, Simon Anderson transformed the sport, and Wayne Bartholomew is a great guy. So much history; so many living legends.

I love the beauty of Western Australia, but I'd much rather live on the Gold Coast.

The only thing I dislike about Australia is their too-often cooperative nature toward American foreign policy.

Ah, the Gold Coast may actually be one of few exceptions - as a town heavily reliant on tourist dollars, the recent high AUD (From historical levels of 60-80c to hover around $1.05) it's hurting fairly bad. Foreigners can't afford to come here any more, and locals - like me - are enjoying our high dollar to holidays overseas.

Still, teacher's jobs are not economically dependant, and Queensland, the state paying public school teachers is considered a mining state.

You have to remember, Australia is a small country of barely 22 million and an anemic army... If the U.S. wants to put a base here, we have plenty of land. If they want a port, we have lots of those too. If they want a token couple special forces platoons and our vote at the UN security council... It's a small price to pay if say, the Muslims in Indonesia decided they wanted to impose Sharia law here.

We do have two interesting things at play here:

1) An ageing workforce - there are a lot of the manual tradespeople retiring.
2) Extremely high wages in the mines - example - I know a plumber working in the mines for 3 days a week (but 12 hour shifts - friday, saturday, sunday) - $128K.

Insane. The mining industry is causing a huge skills shortage due to sucking up all of the tradespeople.

yeah i agree the mines are really sucking up all the skilled workers, you may come here for a job as a tradie but then go 'ooh more money over there'.. and get sucked into the mines also..
its good if your young, while your liver can still handle the alcohol abuse..
big companies raping and pillaging our lands natural resources, what will we have left when its all gone..
its just to keep us out of the sinkhole that every other country is going through, so that the government and banks can tax us more and keep interest rates high
im not sure which side of the fence im on, id hate being in a country in a depression, but hate seeing towns built around mining because once the mines run dry whole towns become ghost towns
and i think its wrong to take schooled and trained people from third world countries that need those people, should be focusing more on training the people we already have here

/end rant

MikeFairbanks said:

The only thing I dislike about Australia is their too-often cooperative nature toward American foreign policy.

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Don't worry there are plenty of US bashers here, mostly on the left. You'll be right at home by the sounds of it

LegendLength said:

MikeFairbanks said:

The only thing I dislike about Australia is their too-often cooperative nature toward American foreign policy.

Click to expand...

Don't worry there are plenty of US bashers here, mostly on the left. You'll be right at home by the sounds of it

Click to expand...

When in Rome.....

If I was in another country I'd keep my mouth shut about all that. Here I speak my mind, but it would be presumptuous of me to go to Australia and tell them what they should do. As a guest I wouldn't do that.

I'm not a U.S. basher either. I love the USA, but I'm not wearing the flag over my head to blind myself with patriotism, if you know what I mean. To me, country is a few notches down the list of priorities, God and family coming first.