News

Working Holiday visas are becoming a popular solution among graduates in UK as unemployment is scarily growing.

The most recent statistics show the unemployment rate in UK is at 7.9% - that is 2.47 million people without jobs, and 192,000 more than the year before.

“Graduates are facing the most intense scramble in a decade to get a job this summer, as a poll of employers reveals the number of applications for each vacancy has surged to nearly 70 while the number of available positions is predicted to fall by nearly 7%,” reported www.guardian.co.uk.

Many, therefore, consider going abroad temporarily to work and possibly gain some experience while enjoy living in another country.

According to official data from Visa First, one of the leading visa agents on the market, UK clients who applied for a Working Holiday visa for Australia through VF in the first six months this year, increased 48% compared to the number of applicants in the first half of 2008.

A VF survey showed that some of the most popular jobs the visa holders find in Australia without special qualifications are waiters, fruit pickers, call centre representatives, painters and others. Some are able to work in their fields of expertise as engineers, nurses, managers, teachers, and more.

“Any employment is better than no employment [even] if it's about flipping burgers or stacking shelves rather than being sat at home feeling sorry for yourself and vegetating. There are lots of other skills required and valued, like people skills: you could be on a counter in a store. It's all about building up your skills base. The big fear is that some people just drop off the bottom of the scale – because confidence goes very rapidly,” said Carl Gilleard, the association's chief executive of The Association of Graduate Recruiters.

Australia and New Zealand are preferred destinations for Working Holidays especially since the last statistics showed the unemployment rate in Australia dropped to 5.2% in May – opposite to the stagnation tendency in Europe. Visa First can assist to anyone interested in working and living abroad for at least one year. It guarantees to make the application process fast and hassle-free, with professional advice and customer support 24/7.