Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

New Zealand has seen a sharp decline in the number of international students in English language and secondary schools this year, Education Ministry figures show.

While numbers were steady at tertiary institutions, secondary schools saw a 21 per cent drop in international student enrolments from 12,573 between January and August last year to 9958 for the same period this year.

Rolls for the English Language Sector (ELS) were down by 28 per cent - from 34,005 to 24,628 in the same comparison period.

There are concerns young Tasmanians are shunning traineeships and apprenticeships because they are not deemed to have the status of a university education. Tasmania is an Australian island located 240 km (150 miles) south of the eastern portion of Australia.A leading training organisation has called for better marketing to entice people back into vocation-based training.

Northern Group Training cannot find enough Tasmanians to fill its vocational courses and currently has 46 vacancies across the state.

New figures show the jobs market in Australia continues to strengthen.

The Seek Employment Index shows an 11 percent increase in the number of job ads posted during the month of November - a 32 percent rise on the same period last year.

Seek director Andrew Basset hopes the trend will continue into the new year.

"We believe so - it's hard to have visibility into the new year but usually at this time, things slow down in terms of job ads," he said.

A new government website to entice Kiwis home from Britain cites cheaper condoms and Big Macs as incentives for returning to New Zealand.

A list comparing English and New Zealand prices on the website New Zealand Now (newzealandnow.info) has been described by Immigration Minister David Cunliffe as a snapshot of "common grocery and household items" that showed how much cheaper the items were in New Zealand.

New migrants to Australia are finding employment faster than ever before according to a new survey conducted by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).

The latest longitudinal survey of new migrants shows that a greater number of principal applicants who entered Australia via the Skilled-Independent, Family, and Business and Employer Sponsored categories in 2003-04 found employment within six months of arriving in Oz compared to those who arrived in either 1993-94 or 1999-2000.

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) Premier Morris Iemma today announced a major expansion of the Government's efforts to attract skilled business migrants to NSW. "With almost half of the nation's finance industry and a large proportion of our economy in the services sector, Sydney is inextricably linked to the global economy. "That means we're in a global battle for investment and talent.