Sometimes, job searching can leave you with the impression that there are no jobs to be had. That’s far from the truth in Australia. The country is currently sitting with 388,000 vacancies in the public and private sectors.
A big part of the problem is that certain fields almost always have vacancies. In particular, those relating to a vocational job. In the interest of securing one of these vacancies, how do you kick off an Australian vocational career?
Today, we take a look at entering a vocational field from beginning to end, and other career advice pertinent to this workforce.
Table of Contents
What Is a Vocational Job?
Vocational jobs are those which require professional trade school skills and hands-on work. Generally speaking, these are construction and repair jobs. Vocational professionals work with machinery, carpentry, and electricity — and other things like medicine and technology.
Vocational jobs, despite being in high demand, pay quite well. After getting a job as one, you can easily earn over $100 AUD an hour. With so few professional peers, you will never struggle to get work.
What Vocational Education Do You Need?
Another great thing about trade schools is that they don’t take very long to complete. You can get through trade school vocational training in as little as eight months. At a maximum, it will take you two years.
This is because, at trade school, you are doing hands-on assignments related to your job. You aren’t taking extra, unrelated courses like English or math.
What Vocation Qualifications Do You Need?
The thing is, trade school graduation is not like graduation from a university. You don’t receive a diploma. Instead, you get a trade certificate.
This certifies you to work in your field. Some professionals need additional certification, however, before entering their line of work. For example, the well-known cert 4 certification.
Research the specific vocational job that you want to enter and check the necessary certifications. In most cases, this will be an add-on course you can complete in a matter of weeks.
How Do You Find a Job?
Vocational jobs are great because you have two options: work for someone else or work for yourself. There’s nothing stopping you from opening your own business and being your own boss. This gives you complete control of how many hours you work, how much work you take on, and so on.
That said, vocational tradesmen starting out should focus on earning experience. Certain vocational careers are in more demand than others, such as construction managers, air traffic controllers, plumbers, and so on. Targeting a job in these fields will secure work of some kind before you can snap your fingers.
Take this time to learn the tricks of the trade. Experience is the best teacher, after all. As you increase your knowledge, you make yourself more competitive and will receive higher pay.
Get Your Vocational Career Today
A vocational job is a surprisingly underrated way to earn your daily bread. Your education only takes, at most, a couple of years, the pay is high, and jobs are always in high demand. Australians looking to get a vocational job could be earning big in just a couple of years.
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