[Magsnags]

I posted before saying that last year when I did my online expression of interest I was told that we didn't have a hope in hell.
My husband is 40 and has worked 23 years on the railway, the last 10 years in the planning dept. He has always had a huge interest in computers, building his own for example and 8 years ago got a diploma in PC repair (probably out of date now) which I didn't mention when I did my ITA. He is always being called on to help friends with PC problems!
We are so keen to get into NZ we will try anything we can so he is considering doing several computer courses as we know IT is on the long term shortage list. HOWEVER, he cannot afford to leave his job to study so we are going to have to finance it on a p/t/home study basis and he would not be able to afford to leave his job once he pass's as his salary pays the mortgage and he could not afford to take a drop in pay. So my question is, would NZ look favourably on someone who had the qualifications but not the experiance? He would love to be in the IT dept at his office, but all IT staff are outsourced and although they are paid vast amount more than he is, are only on short term contracts -something with a mortgage and young children, he could not do. We have sent his CV to TollNZ, but as he rightly pointed out, they are not going to want him even if a job came up he could do because at the end of the day he is just a clerk, a very senior and very experianced clerk but just a clerk.
The courses he is looking at are things like
Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician
Computer Progamming Java
Computer TIA and Computer Maintenance
The other thing is, his boss is talking about retiring this year and my husband will get the job as he is second in command so that would at least give him management experiance on his CV, I assume this would help too?
I am almost qualified as a breastfeeding counsellor (2 exams left) and have undertaken another counselling diploma course which would give me points if I wanted to go to Australia but I don't think they want counsellors in NZ as they are not on the list.
We want to go next year if possible as we have young children - our daughter is almost 8 and our son 4 - he starts school this September, and the older they get the harder it'll be to move them. Also I will be 44 in November so time is not on our side.
We have family in Auckland and friends and our best friends have just gone to NZ, to Marton - last week.
Can anyone give me any advice or should we just give up our dream.
Magsnags

[NooDleS]

The MCDST course would be a plus point on a CV skills matrix. Don't spend hundreds on this, get the books from Amazon and keep doing the practice tests included on CD until your confident to take the test. It only costs £75! There are 2 modules for the MCDST course. Thats £150 plus about £40 for learning materials. NOT £1500 that places like Computeach offer.

You could also do what I'm doing. You have two decent choices...

1. UK- Open University Diploma = 1 Year Study + 50points
2. NZ- Open Polytechnic Level 5or6 IT Diploma = 1 Year Study + 50points

Study them in modules. You can study the NZ Polytechnic course here for an extra $70 per module for postage and you get the bonus of having a familiar and recognized NZ qualification. Plus you can advance to Level 6 from 5 and then onto a Full Degree in your own time.

Look at the IT for Business Diploma.

[Trigirl]

magsnags - it depends on what your husband is trying to gain with these courses. if you are after the 50 points for a recognised qualification then as noodles says you can do a course via the open university or something similar.

however, if you want points for qualifications in an area of skills shortage this isn't going to work as those qualifications have to be at degree level for IT.

management experience on your husbands CV will also no doubt help get a job in NZ - but wont gain you any extra points.

how many points do you have at the moment? have you considered coming over here - either on a recce trip or on a 6 month visitors visa to look for work?

[Magsnags]

Thanks for the reply's, they are really helpful, the courses you suggested are perfect.
Trigirl, we can't come over on a visitor's permit because we don't have £1,000's of pounds to fund a trip over, and I don't want to take the children out of school/nursery, settle them into another school and then we can't find a permanent job so have to come back after a few months.
We need the security of permanent residency and a job offer, then we can sell our house and use the money to fund the trip and buy another house. I'm not sure how many points we have, the migration board didn't say, but I know the 50 points would be a great help.
You are stars.
Magsnags

[MarkS]

Just to make a fairly narrow point, are you talking about the Sun Java certifications? If so, I wouldn't bother with them unless he actually has industry experience in Java. If was looking at a potential employee's CV, I really wouldn't care if he had the Sun certifications or not, just how good his experience was (and then how he performed in interview).

The suggestions above sound good to me, if he's going to do courses then it really should be in something that you'll get extra points for on your application!

cheers
Mark

[eternalkiwi]

If your husband has a strong background in planning, he may be able to secure work working for planning departments within Government Departments and large Corporates.
As MarkS said experience is important also if he has experience in Strategic Planning and Policy type work, there is definitely (well paid) demand in New Zealand for experience in these areas.

[Magsnags]

:) Thankyou for all your replies they were all helpful.
Ethernalkiwi - the planning job dh currently does is very railway specific - he works out where the trains go at the start & end of each day and after engineering works, so they are in the correct place each time - it's like a big jigsaw apparently!!
NooDles Your help was especially appreciated, (you've probably saved us £s we can't afford!) I hope your course is going well too :) .
My dh is now doing some home study courses in IT, COMP tia A+ and N and also will be sitting the Microsoft Desktop Support technician (think that's the name) - all exams are recognised and will be done at our local uni.
We are hoping and praying that once he qualify's he can get a bit of weekend work at PC world or the Laptop man to give him some work experiance on paper and will then look for a job in NZ.
By an amzing coincidence the job he is training for has just been advertised on one of the rail companies - how typical is that!!!
How easy/hard would it be for him to get an IT job with these qualifications and only a small amount of work experiance?
We would not be looking at submitting our EOI untill he has a confirmed job offer as there is no point.
Is this the right way to go?
Sorry to be such a pain.
Any advise would be much appreciated.
Magsnags

[jaycee]

Hi Mags, this is going to sound harsh, but I'm just trying to be realistic. I'm in a similar situation - not a hope in hell unless I get a qualification and/or a job, despite the fact I've worked in IT for over 10 years.

I think you may still need to do that recce trip. Unless you have skills and experience that are in exceptionally high demand, it's going to be very hard to find employment from abroad.

Your husband is actually trying to climb two mountains at once - a mid-life change of career and emigration. That's an admirable thing to do, but I think it might take a little time!

If I could offer your husband any advice at all, it would be to get some solid work experience (i.e. full time for two years or more) and make sure he can demonstrate some 'soft skills' as well as technical ones. I would imagine his current job involves dealing with pressure and deadlines, but does it include things like dealing with customers? IT support roles require people skills, whether the 'people' are within the same organisation or the general public. If he can get some relevant experience in a customer-facing role, that would be a plus point for his CV. Hope this helps, and good luck :)

[Magsnags]

Hi Mags, this is going to sound harsh, but I'm just trying to be realistic. I'm in a similar situation - not a hope in hell unless I get a qualification and/or a job, despite the fact I've worked in IT for over 10 years.

I think you may still need to do that recce trip. Unless you have skills and experience that are in exceptionally high demand, it's going to be very hard to find employment from abroad.

Your husband is actually trying to climb two mountains at once - a mid-life change of career and emigration. That's an admirable thing to do, but I think it might take a little time!

If I could offer your husband any advice at all, it would be to get some solid work experience (i.e. full time for two years or more) and make sure he can demonstrate some 'soft skills' as well as technical ones. I would imagine his current job involves dealing with pressure and deadlines, but does it include things like dealing with customers? IT support roles require people skills, whether the 'people' are within the same organisation or the general public. If he can get some relevant experience in a customer-facing role, that would be a plus point for his CV. Hope this helps, and good luck :)

We have decided he will have to do a weeks reccee trip once he has passed his exams but it will have to be him alone, we have no savings and would not be able to beg/borrow/steal enough to pay for a trip for all 4 of us!
Your idea of him working full time for pc world or whatever is great but he would be employed for a ridiculous salary - probably something like 15k as the junior employee, we would never be able to manage on such a small salary even though our mortgage - by most people's standards is tiny.
And as you say, you already have years of IT experiance and still can't get a job in NZ so he could give up his job with 23 years pension and then be in the same boat as you, though if the money was good I reckon he'd love working in PC world (or wherever) he just wants to be doing his dream job - but in his dream country!!
He was previously in a customer related role and has done loads of customer courses - albeit years ago!
He is really enjoying doing the course. Funny how many people I know that took on a different role when they got into their 40's, my dad retrained from a carpenter to a surveyor in his early 40's and I've gone from a HR assistant to an (almost qualified) breastfeeding counsellor!
Hope it all works out for you
Magsnags
xxx