Nab That Job in Australia!

Hi Stewart, and congratulations on winning the Ultimate Prize:  A Job in Australia! 

Let's learn more about you!

What is your name?

Stewart Riddel

How old are you?

44 years old

What is your marital status?

I am married to Karen, who is a Primary Teacher

Do you and Karen have any children?

We have 2 girls, Lauren and Katie both aged 10 and just about to start senior school in September!!

Where were you born?

I was born and brought up in Glasgow, Scotland but moved to England in search of work in 1985. I got my first job in Kent on the south coast but have spent almost 20 years living in the North East of England. Karen is also from Glasgow but the girls were born in England.  Luckily they both support Scotland in everything, unless Italy or Brazil are playing??

What are your interests?

My greatest interest is football.  I am a qualified referee, an activity which takes up most weekends and I enjoy both playing (I play for the works team) and watching the sport. I am a lifelong Partick Thistle fan, they are the 3rd team in Glasgow and oddly enough have had a number of Australian players including the current central defender Simon Storey who played for Melbourne Storm.  

We are all looking forward to watching Aussie Rules footie!

I enjoy all sorts of sport really, rugby (although I haven't played since school), golf, which I still play (I am really looking forward to playing courses in Australia and in some decent weather as I am sure the biggest reason for my high handicap is the weather!). I also enjoy sailing, which is Karen's greatest pleasure, even when learning in the freezing waters of the west coast of Scotland!

As a family we all enjoy music, I play the piano accordion and Katie enjoys the piano.

We are also keen on outdoor life and regularly go camping (again looking forward to camping in the sunshine in Australia).

Lauren and Katie, despite being twins have completely different interests, Katie enjoys sports such as swimming, running and dancing while Lauren is the artistic one who enjoys acting and drama and is already eyeing up what's available in Victoria.

What made you decide to move to Australia?

We believe life in Australia offers greater opportunities not least for families to do more together but also for children to enjoy childhood a bit more. We have a number of friends who have moved and stayed in various regions of Australia and none would come back. It is something that Karen and I have discussed over a number of years and we made our minds up that the timing is right with the girls about to start senior school (I believe they will spend an extra year in primary in Australia) so it is now or never. We believe the opportunity to experience another culture would be both exciting and rewarding for us all as individuals in our family life and professional careers also.

I have spent the last few years re-training as a Health and Safety Advisor and while on a course made friends with an Australian couple who encouraged us to pursue our dream. We recently went to Victoria to have a look around and stayed with our friends there.  Our visit was inspirational and made us more determined to achieve our goal.

Both children are really excited about making the move, they are upset about leaving friends and family but are keen to sample life in Australia.

How much research have you done into moving to Australia?

We have spent over a year researching our move. We found that Victoria was the only region looking for teachers (none were looking for health and safety personnel).  We have been using an agency 1st Contact to help us through the paperwork and the whole process.

We have applied to Victoria for a Regional Sponsored Visa (475) on Karen's occupation (Primary Teacher). This visa is a 3 year temporary one which allows us to work in Regional Victoria (not Melbourne) but after 1 year we can apply for permanent residency which is what we intend to do.

Karen is registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching and has gained sponsorship from Ballarat Education Authority.  Or visa application was submitted on 17th Feb 2009 and we are currently waiting to hear about medicals and police checks.

As mentioned earlier, Karen and I travelled to Victoria (in October last year) and visited Bendigo and Geelong (at the time of our visit the Education Authorities told us that these were the two most likely areas we would get sponsorship from). Karen visited a number of schools, all of whom said they were keen to take on staff ? so it was surprising to find on our return that she had not been sponsored by either area but by Ballarat and guess which area we hadn't visited. Apparently, however, we are not restricted to live in the area that has sponsored us?  We loved both towns we visited and would be more than happy to live and work in either place and we have researched Ballarat and again we have no problems living and working there.

While we were over I spoke to a couple of agencies in Melbourne, Safetypeople and Safesearch, who handle opportunities in health and safety, I have been advised to wait till I get (hopefully we will) a visa then get back in touch.

Since our return I have been looking at sorting a CV and finding out more about the various industries in and around these towns. We subscribe to the Australia & New Zealand Magazine which is where I came across the advert for www.NabThatJob.com . I bought the book, altered my CV (which is light years better than my own attempt and of course in style more acceptable in Australia) and which is how I came about to be lucky enough to enter and win this fabulous prize.

Thank you Stewart!  I look forward to working with you and assisting you to Nab That Job in Australia!