Work for students in Australia can be easy or very difficult to find. The majority of students get a job after spending a certain time, after they are speaking English better. Students who already know how to speak English well, have obviously more opportunities. We know some cases that within 3 weeks the person already was employed, and other cases that took more than 8 months, and others who have never obtained a job at all.

The three more frequent questions about work for students in Australia are: 1) Will I get a job for sure? 2) How much they pay? 3) Would be possible to support me with this work? And the reply for all this questions is: I don’t know! Everything depends on many factors. One thing is for sure, is very hard for somebody to get a part time job as student and save a lot of money to take back to the home country. Only Immigrants could get full time work, and even for them it can take years or even never to save much. The accounting is very simple: the time allowed to work is 20 hours per week, and the average job pays students around A$ 15, this would make a total of A$ 350 per week. Less the income tax, and expenses to transport to work, it would left A$ 280. If you consider the price of a very cheap course costing A$ 200, it would leave A$ 80 to pay the rent, electricity, telephone, transport, entertainment, clothes, books, food, personal hygiene, and a infinity of other small things. That means it is impossible. As you can see, the permission of the Government of Australia to allow students to work 20 hours per week is of great value to help to finance the studies, however far from providing total financial survival without depending on other sources or better salaries.

Many people coming to study in Australia have the illusion that they will get more money than that. It could happen, but usually only to a few number of people. The numbers are real, and students must be prepared for this reality. Therefore we advise that it’s better to come with money sufficient enough to live and then complement your budget with work, or for jobs paying less than mentioned above (and this is common).

The most common work for International students are in tourism and hospitality industries, such as restaurants and hotels. Working hours for qualified students are the same as schedule of commercial offices, as the working hours are the same as the courses. That’s why many Engineers, system analysts, etc, work in cleaning or as waiters. The most common jobs offered in the hospitality sector are: dishwasher, kitchen hand, handy person, waiters and general cleaning. There are some opportunities in take-away shops as store clerk, attendants, and Pizza delivery (need to own a car).  Of course you can get other types of work, but those are the easiest to find. For those students desiring to work in farms harvesting during the school holidays, Backpacker Hostels have a magazine with a list of all places in each state of Australia. 

The procedure to get the Working Visa is, after  having initiated the course in Australia, go to DIMIA (department of Immigration) in your city, with a letter of the school testifying your enrolment and attendance plus passport,  pay the tax of approximately A$ 60 and you will get a stamp which allows you to work for 20 hours a week.

Read about How to get work in Australia.