Immigrant carers are being kicked out of NZ after the Christchurch Earthquake.
Filipino rest-home workers say they feel “used” after working 18-hour days following the February earthquake, only to be discarded once New Zealand is “done” with them.
Several Filipino caregivers in Christchurch have had their work permit applications denied in recent weeks, with Immigration New Zealand saying there are Kiwis, made redundant because of the February 22 quake, who can do the job.
This is just so sad. The employers actually cannot find Kiwis available to do the work, the Filipino workers cannot find other work (or get a work visa for another job), and the Kiwis out of work because of the earthquake apparently do not want to work as caregivers.
So basically – everyone suffers, and sending the immigrants home won’t make the slightest bit of difference except that the people in the Care Homes will no longer have enough staff to look after them.
This is one of those situation where as Immigrants we just need to accept that political expediency will always be vastly more important than our personal need to be where we want to be. Immigration need to be seen to doing whatever they can can to ensure that Kiwi’s unemployed because of the earthquake are not disadvantaged. I do understand and agree with that – but what about when those Kiwi’s won’t do certain jobs?
I also think its vitally important that potential immigrants understand that Work Visas are for temporary work shortages. They are not permanent – and Immigration does have the right – and sometimes actually has no choice – to refuse to renew a work visa.
Those denied their visas were sent a letter saying they were overstayers in New Zealand, she said.
Well, way to go INZ! That is where I feel they step over the line. There is just no need to behave like that given the circumstances. Would it really kill INZ to give these people a visitors visa for a few months rather than label them “overstayers”? These people have to go through hell now – with their dreams shattered – and INZ labels them as criminals because they just have the sense to come up with a better solution. Clearly the careworkers have not broken any laws – they have – like many other before them – ended up in an illegal situation because of the Immigration Department and its nutty rules.
Immigration New Zealand head Nigel Bickle said work visas could not be granted when Kiwis were available to do the job.
“available” to do the job and willing to do the job are two entirely different things.
About 600 rest-home staff were made redundant after the February quake.
And I would those people would be stepping forward to take the places that INZ are making available to them. Because this is what INZ are seeing – there’s 600 care workers who need a job – and they cannot allow an immigrant to take that job instead.
Work Visas – despite what many people will have you believe – you are never guaranteed that they will be renewed and you have no right to stay permanently. If you come here on a Work Visa – or anything that isn’t a Permanent Residence Visa – make sure you have a plan to get back home .
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Trade Me Salary Guide Oct – Dec 10 is out now.
Once again, Trade Me have come out with a salary survey – which may be of some help when looking at planning a move here. As usual – you do need to understand that this is a very blunt instrument, and you cant really rely on the figures as such:
Trade Me Jobs listing data, full time roles, Oct-Dec 2010. The range represents the 5th and 95th percentiles respectively
Basically thats because it works on the Listed Salary, not on what people actually get paid – and in our experience theres often a large difference between those two numbers. Still, it gives you something to work with when first looking at whether you can afford to live here, or would be willing to work for these salaries.
You can then click on any of those headings and see a further breakdown. The IT section for example:
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Congratulations to Hubby
Because he found out today that he passed the exams we traveled to Sydney for in November (SABSA – Sherwood Associates Business Security Architecture – gee – that sounds like a whole load of fun eh?) Not only that be the smart alec got 94% on one paper and 98% on the other one – which annoyingly means that he has now scored higher on an exam than I have. Also my high score was on an aromatherapy exam – so not exactly taxing to be honest – but hey – I really can’t have him thinking he’s smarter than me.
Anyway, in honour of his achievement, I am sharing the following Dilbert Cartoon which (in the way that these things happen) just coincides with Hubby having to ask some questions of good Ol’ IBM – cos he’s now their client.
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Christmas pressie from the Reserve Bank
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Property & General Investing
Alan Bollard (bless his little cotton socks) has decided that the base interest rate in New Zealand is not going up this month.
“Interest rates are now projected to rise to a more limited extent over the next two years than signalled in September.
Oh Yay! Just in time for my investment mortgages to come off their fixed rates – and there was me thinking that I might have a snowballs chance in hell of reducing my mortgage payments.
Of course the reason for the hold is becuase no one has any money to spend, so the economy isn’t taking off as well as it should. I’m not sure where anyone expects us to get money to spend from right now – prices are still going up and wages aren’t. And to be honest, even if I had any money – what he’s saying is that If I spend it and “help the economy” hes going to put my interest rates up as a result.
Does this make any sense to anyone?
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Saving The Hobbits.
Today was Labour Day in New Zealand. And today was the day I attended my first ever Rally. This one was to show that people want to support Peter Jackson and the people that work for him – that we do not think he is a “spoiled brat” – and that he should not be vilified becuase he cant personally give a small group of actors an agreement that they can get standard terms and conditions on any and every job they get offered – even the ones he isn’t involved in.
To me – Peter Jackson and his team are the epitome of what is great about New Zealand. They don’t care that its a small country, they don’t care that theres only 4 million people here. They don’t care that we don’t yet have the best of everything in the world. All they care about is that here – you can BE the best in world – you can DO the best in the world, and you can damn well MAKE the best in the world.
I cant really compare this rally with others – but it was a very friendly and warm atmosphere.
The issue is still rumbling on: Warner Bros are speaking to Jackson and the Government Tomorrow. There are still some people who truly seem to believe that WB have somehow engineered all this to cop a better tax break from the NZ Government. To my knowledge – this is one of those things that just gets repeated so often – that people think it is true – but the only people saying it are the damn actors union and the journalists – and anyone who agrees with them. PJ hasn’t said he needs more tax break, and WB haven’t either.
The Actors involved (those who are prepared to say who they are) still seem to be coming up with a new version of the story every day. It has even been claimed that there was no international boycott – which is an interesting attempt at spin. There is no contrition – just a lament that they too want the Hobbit to be filmed here. That I actually believe. I honestly think that they just never expected PJ to take this snafu public – and let everyone know that his film was being held hostage. I don’t believe that they thought for one minute their actions would have the consequences they did. But they did have dramatic consequences – and continually refusing to front up and take some responsibility for the problems caused has just undermined the union, and a few actors in particular.
Sir Richard Taylor – Weta Digital
Sure – we need to fight for improved wages and conditions in New Zealand. But we need to do it for everyone. If this debacle has shown one thing – its that there are too many people in the unions here – the head of the Council of Trade Unions, Helen Kelly, for one who believe : “All workers are equal – but some workers are more equal than others”. Thats just not true. You do not have to be a member of a union to have work rights. Many of the people who would lose their jobs if the Hobbit was taken offshore are indeed union members – but they don’t count it seems. The unions should be fighting for everyone – not just a chosen few, and not just at a time its politically expedient for them – which right now in New Zealand seems to be the case. Becuase it is worth remembering that wages were kept low, and taxes high, and work terms and conditions were still appalling in New Zealand under the last Government -and that was at a time of financial boom.
Most of the staff made redundant at IBM could have used union representation. Not everyone has the will, the means or the sheer bloody-mindedness to take on a company that screws them over. But using your union to screw a company over for no other reason than you think it can get you what you want – even if they simply cannot do what you want – and they actually haven’t done anything wrong is a blatant misuse of that union – and the union movement.
Theres an interesting article here – an interview with Simon Whipp – hes the Aussie in charge of the Union. He makes it clear that they tried to talk with the producers of Outrageous Fortune, The Cult, and This is Not My Life – and failed. So my question is – seeing how your union members were actually involved in those shows – why the hell didn’t they refuse to work on them until standard T&C’s were written???? I can tell you – my life would have been significantly improved with a different set cast on TINML!
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Will you have enough to live on?
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand
Following up on Avalons suggestion that I find something interesting to say about the LISNZ. We’ve blogged previously about an Immigration report talking on salaries and standards of living for migrants. So I’ll try and compare the information there with what LISNZ is saying.
What do we find?
Median wages are ‘up’ to $23.49 per hour. That’s $48,860 per year. While the Immigration report says on average Kiwi’s earn $10k – $15k more than migrants to do the same work. So Kiwi’s in the same median job will actually earn $58k – $63k per year. An 18% pay differential, which as we see every year when they compare salaries for male & female employee’s is “unacceptable and must be fixed!”
{as an aside, one item that is identified is that the average Pacific Islander is on an average hourly rate of $14.95, while the average for skilled migrants as a whole is $28.09 – consistent with the observation in a previous post about general inequality.}
If a kiwi is earning $10k more than you and you’re already earning $120k, it may not be too much of an issue. At that level of salary, you’re being paid heavily for your skills & experience - not so much to be a person occupying a specific role that ‘anyone’ could do. So direct comparisons are more difficult. Down at the $50k level an extra $10k for a Kiwi to push the same pile of papers round an office is huge.
Perhaps this links with one of the other highlights, that 70% of migrants had enough or more than enough money to meet their everyday needs.
Implying that 30% of migrants don’t have enough money 
The interesting breakdown of stats here is that of those who had enough money initially, one in three (1/3) of them found they didn’t have enough money by year three. Which is after both the primary migrant or skilled principle & their spouse (sorry for the verbiage, that’s what they call us!) have seen a 15% increase in wages! i.e. up to the $48k average per person. On the plus side, half of those who originally didn’t have enough money did feel after three years that they did now have enough money.
While this is of course talking averages, I’m not sure what this is saying about how migrants are coping financially in practice. Either when they get here or three years later. Migrants are more likely to state that they don’t earn enough three years down the line compared to the first six months. When on average we earn more after three years. IS this because migrants are spending capital initially to support their new life? Which has run out by year three? Is it because the “shine” has worn off? Is it because in the first interview – you don’t want to say anything that might offend your new country?
Or it could be the cost of mortgages. 52% of migrants after year 3 own their own home, yet we also know that many Kiwi’s spend more than 30% of their after tax income on accommodation. With rents being roughly half the cost of a mortgage on the same property, having less money and being less satisfied may just be part of having a mortgage!
Unfortunately – theres no just no way to tell as the survey doesn’t ask why people think they don’t have enough money.
The level of ‘satisfaction’ with life in NZ drops between the first year and third year, while the overall number is within statistical accuracy, the number of very satisfied migrants drops 11%, to 35%. This may be as simple as the allure of a new life waning or your life three years in no longer being ‘new’. This also appears to correlate with a decrease in the sense of safety people feel, down 9% to 76%.
Now, both satisfaction and safety are undefined and somewhat arbitrary measures. I may not be satisfied this week if I’d only read the headlines about LAQC’s and felt we were about to sell the family silver to make ends meet. However, this may correlate with people feeling they don’t have enough money to live on. So back to mortgages again perhaps?
(Avalon still gets peeved with headlines in the news here banging on about how we have low interest rates. It’s 7-8% – that’s not low – its a bloody rip-off.)
The split of where people live remains pretty similar, 50% in Auckland, 30% elsewhere on the North Island & 20% on South Island. Although the only noticeable drift was that more people (as a percentage) move to Auckland by year three, than move away from Auckland. Not unsurprising and I know of numerous people in Wellington who have moved up to Auckland even in just the last six months.
So did we learn anything?
Whatever people may think of lifestyle advantages for moving to NZ, 30% of migrants don’t have enough money to live on. That’s something which is easy to measure & quantify. While satisfaction & safety, less easy to measure, also go down with time. This is good to know.
I was at an entirely unrelated education day the other week where the key point of which was to give people an insight into how things ‘really are’, so they can have more realistic expectations about how difficult things may be, prepare better and make a more informed decision before they make life changing choices.
Hopefully people will be better informed as a result of these surveys.
Hopefully Immigration & immigration agents will communicate this information to people.
Until that happens, we’ll keep telling it like it is.
For Shane: The problems with overseas workers.
As promised, Ive copied the comment from Shane, so that it’s easier to both write a response and for people to read it. I guess for some people, the questions could be seen as “anti-immigrant” but I hope that most people will understand where he is coming from. I believe that these points are well made, and need to be thought about.
I am writing today too see what your thoughts are on Overseas workers – work force at present,
I have just spent 3 years working on projects around Taranaki in the Oil and generating electricity sector. I am a New Zealander born and bred and also a qualified electrician.
Recently have finished work on a big project, a company laid off 40 electricians, 10 stayed on, they were all from overseas – only a couple of them have just got nz qualified electrician, but the rest work under the company electrical licence – how does this help the NZ electricians ??
It doesn’t – and as far as I’m aware that it is total contravention of what immigration is there for. In fact – I blogged briefly in March last year about a similar issue – also in Taranaki. The original article in the papers is here. The important think to understand is whether the 10 people who were kept on were on Work Visas – or were permanent residents. If they were residents, then theres really not much you can do I’m afraid – they have actually worked through the legal process and have a right to the job if they will accept the wages (see below – my hubby has the same issue with Kiwis working for low wages).
If however they are on Work Permits – I would personally suggest you contact the journalist who wrote that article. It really is the best way to get things done in New Zealand – talk to the media. If I was going to make any more complaints about the immigration Dept – I honestly wouldn’t bother – Id just talk to the press and cause a load of hassle.
You also need to consider that while these migrants have just qualified in NZ (or not) – they may have decades of experience overseas that is basically shat on by New Zealand and totally discounted. Many British electricians are forced to work for peanuts when the come here despite being highly qualified and experienced sparkies. This is because of the outdated and stupid rules that says none of that counts for squat here. Again – it may actually not be the fault of the immigrant that they get paid so poorly. I have heard many UK sparkies complain bitterly at being paid so badly here, and it’s certainly not their choice – and they aren’t doing it to go to Australia. They have given up everything to move here.
Presently i have notice big electrical companies in the area hiring overseas workers to fill jobs in this region…….
1. Overseas workers are paid less – there fore less tax to the government – how is this beneficial to our country
This has always annoyed me – and it happens to be something that I have spoken and written about ever since we came to NZ ourselves almost 6 years ago. If the Skilled Migrant system was being used properly – then overseas workers should be employed because they have skills that NZ needs – so why are they being paid less? Often we have skills that NZers don’t actually have, but are needed, yet we get paid less becuase we aren’t Kiwis? I guess in this, Ive been arguing the other side of the point from you – but thinking about it it would have the same result. Overseas workers would not be hired because they are cheaper than Kiwi’s.
To me that is wrong, and its both exploiting an overseas workforce, and as you point out – there are Kiwis who should have those jobs. Immigration is supposed to fill a Labour gap – not create unemployment for Kiwis.
2. Overseas workers send all their money offshore to support their families – how does this benefit our country
I’m going to assume here that you are not in fact talking about ALL overseas workers? I think its fair to say that most of the migrants I personally know are Brits, and I would like to assure you that our wages are sure as hell not leaving NZ – we can’t afford to do that! I wish I knew the answer to this – it happens in Britain as well – and is about as popular. You can’t ban people from doing it – and I cant see a way for the immigration dept to screen people coming here on the basis of where they spend the money they earn.
It does kinda worry me that low NZ wages are still considered high enough for some people to leave their families, come here to work, and still have enough left over to send back home.
3. Overseas worker are only here for 3 years to achieve NZ residency, then off they go to AUZ where they get better pay,
To be fair – that happens the other way as well. When migrants decide they want to go to either Australia or New Zealand, there is always the option of going to the one where you can get a job, and using that to bounce into the other. We were personally advised to emigrate to Australia first as a way of getting into New Zealand. No good for us – as I sure as hell wasn’t going to live in Aus!
Also, it is the case that less immigrants leave New Zealand to go to Australia than Kiwis.
4. so while this happens Overseas worker don’t care about working conditions, hourly rates, all they are here for is to get NZ residency and leave,
Nutters! Yeah – I feel your frustration on this one. In hubbies line of work there is often the same issue: people (often Kiwis in this case) who are prepared to accept being treated like crap, get paid a lot less than they are worth, don’t get pay rises for years on end, don’t get a bonus unless they do the jobs of 10 people. I’m not sure that would be particularly an Overseas worker issue – though again – I’m happy to accept that the kind of work you were doing would mean you are seeing something quite different to me.
I know immigration have stepped in recently and prosecuted some guys for using overseas farm labour – basically little more than slaves. It’s an extreme version of what you are talking about – but yes – a lot of farm workers were being paid a few dollars an hour, and it took a long time for them to complain about it to the authorities.
5. mean while this is driving down my working conditions and hourly rate.
Yep. Again – we have the same issue – if people are willing to work the equivalent of 10 jobs for less money and worse conditions than my hubby would – oddly enough – he’s the one that loses his job. One of the reasons I actually write this blog – and wrote the book – and before that used to write on forums, was to persuade immigrants that taking a low paid job just because it was in New Zealand was counterproductive – for everyone. We are fed a line that living here is so cheap, we don’t NEED to earn much – then once you get here on a low salary – it takes some guts to fight for more. It’s complete bollocks of course – Kiwis all know that living here is relatively expensive – but migrants don’t know that. They are being conned by Kiwi Employers into taking those crap wages and working conditions.
6. Then the companies hire overseas workers are making more money as they pay them less and charge out the same rate regardless, are hiring good accountants to hide their tax’s and make more profit.
I should declare that I’m personally a huge fan of hiring an accountant so I pay less tax (which I will continue to do until governments world-wide stop wasting taxes becuase there know theres an endless store of more funds they can steal from me). If you haven’t really read my blog before – you may not have come across that. Companies making a profit is not a bad thing – but on the one hand exploiting cheap migrant labour while on the other hand refusing Kiwis work is in my book NOT the way to do that.
7. Meanwhile i sit on the dole as a citizen of this country with a trade
8. And yes – i have rang WINZ and ask what they have in plan for Qualified, experienced trades person like myself for CHCH clean up and helping – and like all government agency’s – i have yet to hear back from WINZ…..i wonder if you can help on these questions ??
I think you may be working at this from the wrong angle to be honest. Please consider emailing that journalist – and see if theres a story here for them. You certainly shouldn’t be on the dole with a skill like this – and as I understand whats happening with immigration – they CANNOT give a work visa to a migrant if theres a Kiwi that can do the job. I know from what I was told about 12 months by a staffer at Immigration that they are turning down 95% of work visa applications. And many migrants on work visas (those are the temporary ones – different from Permanent residence) are being sent back to their home countries even if they have been here for many years.
As for Christchurch – I think thats exactly where you should be heading. I’m gobsmacked that WINZ aren’t on top of this already! But then again – maybe I shouldn’t be. In your shoes – I would actually contact the Sallie Army down there and see if they have any contacts of people looking for sparkies. Possibly even the mayors office? There has to be someone down there who can point you in the right direction.
Regarding the issue of whether you have lost your job to a migrant when the company should not be employing migrants if Kiwis are available:
Well – as Ive said above – you need to understand that theres really only an issue you can do something about if they are on Temporary Work Permits. If you know that is the case – and you choose to make a complaint and not go to the media – the address you need is:
The Manager
Compliance Operations
Immigration New Zealand
PO Box 5342
AUCKLAND
At least I think it is – I couldn’t find any clear info that covers your issue. Just be aware that Immigration don’t take kindly to people making complaints – probably you’ll get as far as you would with letters to MP’s! I still reckon the media is the way to go – but DO make sure you have your facts right about the migrants involved. Thats really important – otherwise you will do your case more harm than good.
I know thats not really much help to your current situation, but I hope I have helped in some way. And I hope you get that job soon.
Good luck 
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Inequality increases in NZ (?)
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, Hubby's Views, Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand
I was reading an article in this weekends’ Dom Post entitled ‘skilled workers reap pay benefits’. The article by Andrew Whiteford from Infometrics talks about the latest inequality statistics from MSD (Ministry of Social Development). Fortunately, Infometrics are good enough to publish it on their website.
The article talks about household income and reasonably points out that just because there is a bigger gap between those earning less and those earning more, doesn’t mean it’s all bad. Fundamentally, with a move to more IT focused businesses rather than manual labour or manufacturing, there is a greater demand for people with skills. The more money they earn, the more money they spend. To spend money, on things like coffee or eating out, you need people in those service industries, who typically earn a low hourly rate.
So; more higher paying jobs, more income, more spending, also means more lower paying jobs (which also presumably leads to more income & more spending since if people didn’t have a lower paying job they would be doing what?? Not earning, or heading overseas to earn money.)
(Or bludging off the state to focus on something as enlightening as a TaxPayer funded “Art Installation” to show the benefits of bludging of the state and refusing to work, resulting in some of the funniest insults ever created on KiwiBlog! – Avalon.)
Now because I’m a little suspicious of the normal standard of reporting, the DomPost even managed to mangle a simple graphic showing employment growth, I figured I would look for the source MSD information.
Only a search of the MSD website doesn’t find this information easily either. We can get to the 2009 report here {which does include a whole bundle of interesting reading}
And Google being your friend, actually takes you off to the NZ Institute.
Which helpfully does cite references back on the MSD website, bringing us back to the information we were looking for in the first place, being the MSD report the Infometrics article is based on. Still with me on this treasure hunt?
The MSD analysis is actually of data from StatsNZ up to June 2009. So while it’s officially a 2010 report, it’s based on data between a year and two years old.
So are we all poor, well off, or somewhere not quite in the middle?
1/ Median income for households has grown evenly between 2007 & 2009. Before this, there had been a big bump up due to the Working For Families (WFF) tax credit. WFF is also responsible for reducing the inequality in income. i.e. those on low incomes get tax credit’s nominally paid for by those on higher incomes. So WFF is working effectively in terms of income redistribution across the country.
2/ Accommodation costs across the country are going up as a proportion of household income. The measure here is how many households are spending more than 30% of their income after tax & benefits are applied on the roof over their head. Whether that’s as rent or a mortgage.
3/ Poverty depends on how you measure it. Even I can’t quite make sense of what the two different measures are actually looking at and what it means beyond that they are looking at ‘disposable income after housing costs are paid for.
4/ Sixty six percent (66%) of two parent families are dual income households. i.e. both parents work. Which is actually down from the 75% level five years ago, and these days a greater proportion of those two parents are both in full time work. Interestingly enough, those 9% who are no longer in full time work are typically not working (in paid employment) at all. And the overall proportion of two parent families with one in full time employment and one in part time employment have dropped. This may be a WFF thing again. If the part time earner is having to work longer hours to pay for child care while they are at work, and overall income drops because the household income goes above the WFF threshold, it makes sense to stop working, get the benefit income and not have to pay childcare costs. Clearly this is just one possible reason, and the report doesn’t provide any real analysis of why there has been this change in the distribution of employment in two parent families.
What the income inequality report doesn’t tell us, is whether low income individuals or households are increasing their income over time to the middle of the pack. The bottom rung then being taken up by young people starting off in the workforce. It also doesn’t tell us whether low income individuals are part time or full time employed, self employed, or indeed whether there is a preponderance of two income households which still have a significantly lower overall total income. The statistics only look at disposable income, so we can infer what overall income looks like by considering the relative cost of housing. Net result, more households across the entire income spectrum across the country have less disposable income left to spend on things like food, electricity etc.
To be fair I can’t see a good way of being able to track the information on progress. So the caveat to all this is that the surveys talk about averages. With NZ having relatively easy access for Pacific Islanders to move here and work, there is also a consideration that not all emigration to NZ is of skilled workers. As has been pointed out before, all economies need a mix of skilled and unskilled people to fill the available jobs. So again, it’s entirely likely that in comparison to a standard of living measured by income, that a low skilled & low paid job in NZ is better than a lower paid job on what many of us would view as an idyllic Pacific island.
Going abroad for courses
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand
One of the curious things I found in the early days of being in Wellington was the number of people who went to other countries for IT training courses. My new manager had recently come back from a security course in South Korea, while others had been to Singapore & Australia every year. Plus of course there were then conferences taking place mostly in Australia that people went to.
I was a tad perplexed – surely there were training courses being run in NZ?
Well – no actually.
Weehey!! Annual international travel to far flung places in Asia to go on required training courses. Of course, it never quite works out like that. However in the years we’ve been here, I’ve gone to a bundle of events in Auckland & Wellington (ignoring the events I’m organising in the first place) plus;
- Two courses in Sydney
- One course in Melbourne
- One conference on the Gold Coast
- One international conference in Adelaide.
- Zero courses or conferences in Fiji or Tahiti
A search around now has confirmed the same situation I found five years ago. If you want the basic Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, product training courses or project management Prince etc. - then you’re perfectly okay in Auckland, kinda okay in Wellington (& you can always fly up to Auckland) and vaguely okay in Christchurch (as long as you only want the entry level courses). Although an in joke I was made aware of with some folks down on South Island was that if someone was on a course for the afternoon, they actually meant they were off work to go on a (golf) course!
If you’ve got experience and need a course to enhance your skills or gain a high level certification, then you seriously have to look outside NZ. There’s a course I’m due to take in November. I’ve been planning to take it for the past five years and in that time only once has it been run in NZ. Unfortunately I couldn’t persuade my employer to pay for that at the time and I didn’t have the holiday days to take the time off and pay myself either.
So instead we’re off to Sydney for a week in November. (It’s a tough life being self-employed)
Comparing this to the situation I found in the UK, there were plenty of opportunities for courses as long as you wanted to go to London. Manchester & Birmingham often times had things on. So other than the frequency of courses and number of people, you could still get everything you needed done in the UK mostly. Which of course wasn’t the point – a week long trip to the south of France for a course would have been very nice indeed. I managed to get to Germany a couple of times, Spain once. While my brother once had the joy of spending six weeks in La Hulpe in Belgium. (not as interesting as you would hope).
None of which beats the two months I had in San Jose, California, 15 years ago writing a book. So I’m still working on trumping that.
So overall the opportunities for further training courses are fewer & further between and require a fair bit more planning when being out of the country is involved. Kiwi companies place just as much emphasis on having the qualifications, although there is more of an acceptance that experience generally trumps a string of letters after your name.
The qualifications are still a useful filter, particularly when you’re having to deal with recruitment agents who may not know an MSc from an MCSE if it sat there waving at them. As we’ve said before, kiwi employers are often interviewing you to see if you’ll fit, rather than to test the knowledge behind your qualifications.
Wellington life; the three minute commute
When we first emigrated to Wellington, the new apartment with a new job were pretty close. Two sets of lifts, two sets of pedestrian traffic lights and six minutes later I’m in the office.
A far cry from the typical 2 hours drive each way, which in some cases took me more than six minutes to walk from one end of the car park into the office. And lets just ignore the 4+ hours it took to get into central London using a car, train, underground & my feet.
Contracting means I’m floating around town a lot now, a different office different months. Right at the moment I’m in an office on Tory St. While we live in an apartment on…
Tory St. 
I’m timed the commute, from leaving my desk, getting into the lift, walking across the road, back into a lift and getting in the apartment door it takes 3 minutes.
Which is kinda nice.
It means I can pop home for a coffee break, some decent lunch or when I’ve forgotten something.
Or when Avalon is about to throw the Laptop out of the window. 
So it’s not far off working from home, I don’t get to wander around in jeans & t-shirt though.
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