Sunday 25 March 2012

Seminar on Australian property, migration

A seminar on Australian Property Investment and Australian Migration will be held at Four Points By Sheraton Kuching on March 30 and at Imperial Hotel, Miri on April 2.

A statement said the seminar would allow the public to discover the many benefits of migration and investing in Australian real estate. Both sessions will start at 7pm.

“This seminar will provide you with valuable insights and information on how to enter the Australian property market and where the hotspots are. This seminar also helps you identify properties with good returns and value appreciation.

“Giving you an outlook for the property market for 2012 and beyond, it also helps you look into how to secure an Australian bank loan, how to offset your child’s Australian education costs through migration and by investing in property,” said the statement.

The seminar also highlights the benefits for migrants and visa requirements for family reunion, permanent residence renewal, skilled and business migration.

Information sessions on residential property investing will be presented by Ironfish, a leading property investment company in Australia and New Zealand.

The sessions will allow interested parties to find out more about the how, when, what and means of investing in Australian property.

“Australian residential property has traditionally been a favourite of Malaysians,” said Ironfish Property Investment strategist Seulyn Wong, who is originally from East Malaysia but is now residing in Perth.

“Australian Property is an ideal investment vehicle for anyone seeking to secure their long-term future, offering strong returns with a hedge against inflation.

“Many Malaysian parents who bought properties for their children who study in Australia are reaping the results of their wise move. Not only have they saved huge amounts of rental money, their properties have appreciated substantially.”

One-to-one appointments can be pre-booked to allow private discussions with Ironfish Property Investment Strategist and Migration Service specialist GALC Professional Services Ltd.

As seats are limited, interested parties are advised to call Clara Lo (019-8564418) or email clara@galc.com.my, or Joseph Lee (013-8331346) or email joseph@galc.com.my.

Meanwhile, Lo has been appointed GALC Professional Services Ltd Sarawak director to oversee the Sarawak market.

Lo was formerly an Australian permanent resident and also worked as the trade facilitator with the Australian Trade Commission for Sarawak.

She resides in Kuching and will bring local client services to the Sarawak region.

Lee, who resides in Bintulu, has been appointed area manager for Sibu and Bintulu.

He has an extensive business history and will actively support the needs of clients in the two regions.

Thursday 15 March 2012

UK & Australia Replace Ireland in Online 'Find Work' Search

Research by ProfileTree.com has shown a major global shift in the way people are trying to "find work" using online search engines. In 2011 Ireland held the 2nd highest ranked country under the Google search "find work," UK was 5th, Greece 8th and USA came 9th. However, 2012 trends indicate that more people are now searching for this term in other countries such as the UK and Australia.

Since the start of 2012 alone, South Africa and Ireland have been replaced from position 1 and 2 by Australia and the UK, who both moved up 2 places. Canada placed 7th in 2011 is now running 3rd and the USA - placed 9th in 2011 is currently holding 4th place. Since January 2012 Australia has been the highest-ranking country with the most searches for the exact term "Find Work."

A similar trend is emerging with city specific searches. The upmarket area of Kensington in London recorded the most searches in 2011, followed by Brisbane and then Dublin. Australia had 3 cities listed in the top 10 of 2011 - Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, the USA had Los Angeles and Chicago - Manila in the Philippines, London and Singapore completed the top "find work" cities of 2011.

However, a dramatic shift happened towards the end of 2011 and at the beginning of 2012 meaning Dublin and Manila have dropped out of the top 10 - replaced by Toronto in Canada and New York. Australia has taken spots 1, 3 and 4 with Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney following.

What does this mean for the state of the economy - or for people who are trying to find work?

Reviewing these trends, talking to both self employed and people trying to find work via ProfileTree.com and through social media - it is possible these metrics actually reflect migration. Where mobile people in regions that have suffered the hardest during the current decline used the internet to try and "find work" by typing in this exact search term during the years up to 2011. Towards the end of 2011 and start of 2012, as people continue to move towards traditional migration services centers such as the USA, America, Australia and London in the UK, it's no surprise to see these regions dominating the 'find work' search online.

There is no doubt that this trend will be reflected in local benefit claims, remittances and registered numbers of unemployed in 2012. It also reflects how people are trying to find work using every possible means. Year on year the internet has becomes a more valuable work finding resource. It is even more important that people have an effective skills profile online so they present an excellent image to any possible employer or customer. ProfileTree predict that a skills profile will be one of the most important online tools people can have today - be found easily and control what people see about you when reference checking.

About ProfileTree
ProfileTree (www.profiletree.com) is a new social website that allows people to advertise their services for free. Their mission is to help people find work,both employed and self employed. Users can create a profile and offer their skills or service to their local market or to a global market online. Using ProfileTree self employed or skilled people can create a skills profile that will be promoted online for them. Users can control what people see about them when they search for their service, business or skills profile online.

ProfileTree has a head office in Belfast, Northern Ireland - with partners around the world to ensure maximum support for each global region. Articles and tips are provided for people to maximise their presence online, find work and create a skills profile that gains new customers.

Contact:
Ciaran Connolly
International Operations
ProfileTree: www.profiletree.com
Phone: 0044 2895 810610 Mobile : 0044 7733951638
Email: ciaran(at)profiletree(dot)com

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebfindwork/profiletree/prweb9279290.htm

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/03/15/prweb9279290.DTL#ixzz1pF5Td7hk

Monday 12 March 2012

Randstad eyes cloud move to Telstra

International Recruitment and human resources consultancy Randstad will move to Telstra's infrastructure-as-a-service offering over the next three years, with a view to outsourcing all communications and infrastructure work for its Asia Pacific offices to the telco.

The company’s Sydney data centre currently provides the backbone for its operations, including a Citrix-based thin client environment that caters for 1000 employees in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Regional chief information officer Kevin O’Neill told iTnews that Randstad had initially sought to consolidate its telecommunications contracts from five suppliers to one, with data centre migration and potential cloud offerings an afterthought.

Under a three-year contract with Telstra, Randstad will move all fixed line, mobile and international MPLS network requirements to the telco.

Telstra will provide fibre connections to the vast majority of the company’s regional offices and renew a fleet of 350 mobile devices, including iPads and some mobile broadband dongles to operate over Telstra’s 4G network.

Randstad will also gradually replace its legacy hardware with services from Telstra’s cloud -- a move O'Neill described as "baby steps" and "not a go-to-the-cloud type thing".

The HR firm plans to migrate infrastructure from an in-house data centre to a Telstra colo facility in Sydney. Phase one of the project is expected to conclude by June.

Randstad will also look to overhaul its disaster recovery strategy with a key focus on taking up storage and server offerings from Telstra’s cloud as a first step.

As its Dell and EMC servers and storage reach end-of-life in the next three years, O’Neill said his team would undertake a case-by-case analysis of whether to replace them with cloud services.

“We’re reasonably conservative, we don’t want to jump straight into the cloud; it has to fit with the business and we also have to manage our business operations,” he said.

In doing so, Randstad will join growing ranks of clients on Telstra’s cloud project. The telco's cloud service, once code-named ‘Silver Lining’, has courted the likes of Komatsu and Visy, while partially relying on a partnership with Accenture to garner more business.

Telstra has so far refused to disclose how many clients have signed onto its cloud service.

It expects to invest $800 million on the service in the five years to 2016, launching a self-provisioning portal and public pricing late last year.

For Randstad, O’Neill said the initial data centre migration services could also open up the company to re-negotiating for cloud-based email and producitivity applications, though O’Neill said that would likely involve Randstad's Holland headquarters.

“Then the next time we have a SAN renewal come up we’ll certainly look at getting cloud storage from Telstra,” he said.

“If we need any virtual machines for development work, those are the sorts of things that open up to us. Those sorts of things start to come into the frame but certainly it will be a three-year strategy.”

Monday 5 March 2012

Migrant workers take risks to secure a future

Zandro Sta Maria left his wife and two children in the Philippines and embarked on a journey to Western Australia on a temporary work visa in 2006.

He was one of several men brought over to work at an abattoir in the South West and says at times he felt safety was compromised to increase productivity.

"It's normal for management to say 'hurry up, hurry up', because they have their own targets," he said.

"Towards the end of the production day everybody feels tired.

"They push you to the limit, not considering that we are just human."

It's stories like Mr Sta Maria's, and those of other migrant workers, which has prompted a study of workplace safety among Australia's migrant workforce by WA's Institute for Medical Research.

It follows international research which shows migrant workers are more prone to accidents and injuries in the workplace because they undertake high-risk jobs that native-born people are not inclined to do.

As a migrant whose right to remain in Australia depended on his ability to keep working, Mr Sta Maria says he never considered speaking to the company about working conditions.

"I worked myself really hard," he said.

"Considering that I'm from a different country, we tend to work as hard as we can and as long as the body allows us."

Despite working 10-hour shifts, he says he never complained of fatigue in fear of being dismissed and sent back to his own country.

"For us visa holders, we simply cannot say 'I've had enough', because we are hired to work and work and work and when we say 'I've had enough' there may be consequences," he said.

"I was afraid of getting fired.

"At the end of the day, if your goal is to have a better future for your family, you can never really say no."
Barriers

Associate Professor Alison Reid says despite the increasing trend of looking at immigration to address skills shortages in Australia, little research has been done in this area.

"A study was done about 30 years ago that showed migrant workers in Australia have higher fatalities at work than Australian-born workers, but this work hasn't been updated since," she said.

The study will compare the number of migrant workers to the number of Australian-born workers who are admitted to hospital due to a workplace accident or injury.

Hussain Sadiqi arrived in Australia from Afghanistan in 1999.

He quickly learned it wouldn't be easy to use his skills and qualifications.

"In Afghanistan I was the captain of national martial arts team, and had a sports science degree but that wasn't good enough," he said.

"They said you have to finish university here, and then you can get a job in physiotherapy."

Mr Sadiqi says for many people, the humiliation of not being able to work in their professional field is compounded by being on the receiving end of racism and bullying.

"They have to find something to feed their family," he said.

"That's why any job that comes along, they have to accept.

"Because they're not experienced in that job, they may face bullying and racism."
Unaware

Australia has some of the highest standards of occupational health and safety regulations in the world but many migrants don't know this.

The Multicultural Services Centre of WA's executive director, Ramdas Sankaran, says many migrants are at a disadvantage.

"Many of these people who come to Australia are not just not proficient in English, but they're not literate in their own languages," he said.

"They're not necessarily familiar with the equipment they are asked to use in terms of safe handling procedures.

"Most of what we do by way of occupational health and safety is done in written English. If you're not fluent in English, where does that leave you?"

Mr Sankaran says employers need to ensure migrants understand the safety guidelines that govern their work.

He recommends visual hazard signs and safety information written in languages other than English.

Mr Sankaran says migrants take on any job they can get, and this is often work they are not accustomed to.

"Out of sheer desperation and nothing else, when a person has qualifications which aren't recognized in Australia, they go into whatever jobs they can lay their hands on and sometimes its employment that may not necessarily be suited to their physical capacity," he said.
Few options

He says people with poor English skills usually take on manual labour, and have little chance of progressing into supervisory positions.

"Most of us don't live and die in the same job, we manage to work our way upwards," he said.

"But, if you're not good at English and don't have too many skills other than lifting stuff or cleaning, you're going to be stuck in jobs that your body won't be able to cope with as you age."

Professor Reid says the study will take all of these issues into account.

"We are interested in talking to people about physical risks such as exposure to chemicals or asbestos," she said.

"But, also psycho-social hazards in the workplace including the stresses which arise from racism, bullying and job insecurity."

Mr Sankaran says racism is a harsh reality in many Australian work environments.

"To have a person in a supervisory position indulge in racist name calling, clearly they're putting enormous pressure on a person who is already under incredible physical and mental strain," he said.

"It can be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

The study is recruiting men and women born in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

If you would like to participate, please phone Cema Santos on (08) 9346 1514 or email cema.santos@waimr.uwa.edu.au.