INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
By Roger Bartholomew

Roger Bartholomew spends his life talking with students - both as a teacher and as a counselor. His position as president of International Education Specialists, Chairman of Southville Foreign University and Director/Teacher at Southville International School all involve listening to students and parents and advising them on their studies and careers. He is a frequent speaker in schools, colleges, universities, public forums and focus groups.

New Zealand:  A Great Place for a New Start

Last month, I talked about the back door into the Western World, New Zealand. It appeared to ring a chord with many people as I was receiving 10 – 15 e-mails and text messages everyday asking for more information. At that point, I realized that I really hadn’t gone into any of the features or benefits of living in NZ, and the list, of course is long: the wine, lamb chops, …….. and off-hand I can’t think of any more at the moment! Ah, but I am maligning a great country. Free education, free health care, nuclear-free, environmentally pristine, inexpensive utilities, and an abundance of sheep droppings for making bio-fuels to avoid the cost of gasoline, are all just part of the attraction of New Zealand.

However in response to many very specific questions, I did some research to answer the most common questions. The first one was, “what are the types of skilled people that New Zealand most wants?”

I thought that the answer would be rugby players, cricketers, yachtsmen and sheep shearers, but in that I was sorely wrong. The occupations in demand are (for professional skilled people) accountants, analytical chemists, architects, CAD specialists, dentistry (all areas), opticians, engineers, surveyors, medical doctors, teachers, traffic planners (maybe not from the Philippines!), and travel consultants. On the trade skills side: everything to do with agriculture, automotive, building & construction industry, wine makers, sky-diving instructors (!), plastics, decorators, IT, computer, hotel restaurant management, the food industry, and sheep shearers.

This is the list, somewhat shortened, of those immediately required skilled people. There is though, a much longer list of general skills requirements which focuses heavily on medical personnel for the professionals and automotive, computer and agricultural skills for the trades side. It is notable though, that NZ would really prefer migration applications from people who have studied in NZ and have NZ qualifications. To attract such people the NZ universities (Canterbury, Auckland, Victoria, Waikato, Massey, Otago and Lincoln) have a special tuition fee rate for international students wanting to study Ph.D.s in NZ and only charge NZ$3,000.00/year for the three-year program. As an added incentive, spouses may work fulltime and children may study for free at the government schools while the Ph.D. is being taken. And that answers the second specific question: “what universities are there in New Zealand”.

As a general rule, universities handle all of the professional skills and academic degree programs, whereas colleges handle all the trade skills – and many upper level skills that lead to national certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees and post-graduate diplomas. Some of the best known colleges are Whitireia Polytechnic, UCOL, Manukau Polytechic, CPIT, AUT and WIT. CPIT is particularly well known for its nursing conversion program where a licensed Philippine nurse can, in 9 weeks and for minimal cost, convert their Philippine license to an NZ nursing license, and gain employment and permanent residency as soon as they finish their program. And that answers the third specific question: “where can I take up trade skills that are recognized for permanent residency?”  

NZ has three major cities, Auckland, Wellington (the capital) and Christchurch and QANTAS/Air New Zealand fly direct to all of these from Sydney. Opting for the largest city (Auckland) is not always a good move, for while there are more jobs on offer, the cost of living is much higher. There are many thriving Philippine communities across NZ, and New Zealanders have a high respect for Filipinos as they contribute a lot to the communities and the economy.

Migration and residency is not quite as clear cut as the options in Australia, and our recommendation for NZ is usually to take a year’s course of study and organize employment and residency through that route. As always, I will respond quickly to any and all of your questions and comments e-mailed to me at rogerb@inter-ed.com or texted to 0918-912-5191.

My final comment is for those of you who are having a hard time getting a good job or knowing what skill/course to take to ensure a career, don’t give up, the jobs are there, but you may want to get a bit more information to help you make a good decision as to what to do first, and we are only an e-mail away. I read last week on a web site for jobs in South Australia, “Senior Geologist – starting salary AUD$250,000.00/year. If you meet the required qualifications you can ask for any salary you like – money no object”. Oh well, I guess Geology enrolments will be going up this year! Good luck with job hunting and equipping yourself for your career. This is Roger Bartholomew signing out until next month’s upload.

For those of you who want to get a move on NOW, and don’t want to wait any more, e-mail me at roger@info.com.ph or text me on 0918-912-5191 and tell me what you want to do with your career. Hopefully I can advise you how make it happen and give you all the nitty-gritty details! More about studying, working and living in NZ next month.