457 visa axing to hurt PR industry with ‘PR manager’ to be removed from temporary visa list
Recruitment of overseas staff into Australian advertising, media, PR and digital agencies is set to become significantly tougher thanks to the Turnbull government’s plans to abolish the 457 visa, with the number of eligible occupations for the new replacement visas being reduced by 216.
For the PR industry, of concern is the proposed removal of public relations manager from the approved occupations list.
Industry body the Public Relations Institute of Australia has described yesterday’s announcement as “concerning and unexpected”.
Jenny Muir: The PR industry is expecting very strong growth over the next three years
What I’m failing to understand is if current 457 holders can apply for permanent residency as was previously the case. It’s been stated that current holders will continue under a ‘grandfathering’ arrangement but unclear if this is simply to uphold the visa, or if P.R will still be a pathway for current 457 holders. What a kerfuffle.
Yes, 457 holders like me, will still be able to apply for PR.
That`s the major point about all the information. I`m in the same case. What I got after all my research is if you can apply for your PR before March 2018, go for it. The changes about the ENS Direct Entry will be valid just after this date. In my case (I would be able to apply only at May 2018) is still unclear. I hope that they assure our rights with this grandfathered arrangement. And, if everything goes well for us, we`ll have to wait 4 years instead of 1 to apply for citizenship.
But I`m so nervous about it that I just want my PR and after I see what`s going on about the citizenship……
UK Nationals with Australian citizenship are about to land an absolute bonus! #HeapsGood
There’s plenty of local PR talent here, maybe we should invest more on them instead.
And who will be investing? You need skilled people to train the juniors. They are often 457s.
So does that mean that if you’re on a 457 you can’t look for a new job with someone to takeover your visa as you’ll have to go through this new process? If so, it basically means every Brit is at the mercy of their current employer even more. It would also mean that suddenly no Brit on a 457 would be able to be poached.
What PRIA do not seem to realise is that there are large number of graduates with PR degrees who are unable to find jobs because the PR industry thinks Entry-level means having 5+ years experience. Instead of looking to outside Australia for practitioners and managers, why not try to further develop our “highly skilled home-grown workforce”; I can list 50+ recent graduates who are still looking for work and eager to learn, but are shut out because they do not have the specified experience for Entry-level roles. On top of that, there are a large number of agencies hiring graduates as interns, which prevents a number of students from gaining valuable experience, and going against the meaning of an internship.
PRIA is out of touch with the world outside the agency bubble, which is why I will never become a member, despite it being the industry I am educated in and work in.
Perfect response!
We need to clap down on the number of Brits in PR/ marketing jobs here in Oz. It’s crazy!
Surely if you are good and confident in your job, they shouldn’t impact you. What I fail to understand is this constant rhetoric and hate for anyone from a different country, when most people making the comments are likely only 2nd or 3rd generation aussies anyway.
When I graduated from animation a number of years ago it was impossible for me to get work at a major studio. Animal Logic was crying foul that they couldn’t find local talent so they had to hire from OS. 3 year minimum experience on a feature film needed??!! There is local talent, they just didn’t want to support it.
Things are changing now though. There are a bunch of courses spitting out animation people in Sydney, and Animal has partnerships with various colleges and UTS.
The visa change is mainly rhetoric. If you are good and can offer value, an employer will still be able to sponsor. In terms of Barnaby Joyce’s mate Gina and her wants of a slave labor force. She will still get what she wants I bet. As for Aussies moaning that there are two many Brits. The reality is, if there were enough Aussies then there would not be many Pome’ accents within the industry. There is a shortage, hence the need to sponsor. (Basic supply and demand and in this case, not enough Aussie supply.)
https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/the-ad-industrys-secret-shame-330144
It’s not hate but Australians have a right to expect Australian jobs should be for Australians. It’s as simple as that.
There are far more applicants than positions in marketing and advertising in Australia and 457’s have been a rort.
Why do they have that right? Don’t you have to be good enough first?
That one reason for this is many Australians in our industries head abroad to work in London, New York and other global cities. It’s a two way street.
I think youll find increasingly that it is not…
Time to start investing locally in talent. Start relationships with Uni’s and Colleges to develop this local talent.
The challenge is twofold – getting people in with the right level of experience and in the volume you need. While I’ve sympathy for grads, they’re not able to do an AMs hob in the time to you need – and as to the person who says there’s lots of local talent – id genuinely love to know where those people are.
It might not be so crazy, assuming the “Brits” have passed a English grammar test which you are failing right now…! (clap!)
It’s cheaper and more effective (short term) draining mid-to-senior level PRs from OS than training and perservering with local PR graduates who get stuck in hospitality etc. Agencies make more money from instant OS hires than investing in early career PRs who typically take three to four years workplace experience to become profitable. 457s have been legal but are they ethical? Are they or the new proposed visas, in the best long term interests of Australia’s world-class home-grown communication industry? Also, PRIA is an institute of individual members, not an employer’s lobbying body. It’s recent 457 statement does not reflect the views of all its members and sub-groups within. This sentiment and concern is reflected in some of the worthy comments above and should serve as a portent to PRIA.
For anyone who has tried to employ Australian males into media roles would understand why 457’s were the easiest way to get gender diversity into teams.
As a Brit on a 457 working in PR, I 100% agree that graduate positions should be left to the Australian graduates. But I don’t think shutting out more experienced OS workers is in the best interests of anyone. My 10 year OS experience (in the UK and US) is what makes me a valuable contributor to my team, as I can provide best practice approaches from these markets to my agency and also connect clients to local media and/or businesses should they be looking to scale offshore. And isn’t it good for the graduates to be exposed to this international experience for their own career trajectory? I know I appreciated the American MD I had in the UK and learnt so much from her. I can only speak for myself here but at my level (SAM/AD) I also get headhunted a lot, which says to me that there is a local shortage at that level? Perhaps because the Aussie PRs, once experienced, are heading off to pastures new? So it’s almost like an international exchange program which is good for all countries to learn from one another. Removing a senior level of OS PR experience in Australia will eventually cause the industry to stagnate.
Arguably agencies avoided or diluted their priority with graduates’ training and development a decade ago, hence the alleged shortage of skilled, profitable PRs in an industry at the apex of multi-disciplinarity. Cool that ‘bigger picture’ above got 10 years’ UK/US experience, but these markets rarely reciprocate for PRs here over 30 y.o. They’re actually tightening their eligibility for us to qualify for employment there, but hey, step right up here.
The notion that the job market is more open to OS workers here than in the UK is completely false.
to a large degree (and certainly at the level my company recruits at), this won’t make a huge difference in the creative agency area. The visa is being cancelled/changed but good, well qualified mid and senior international agency talent will still be easy enough to get visas for and the tightened visa qualifications won’t have much impact because few creative agencies were hiring overseas talent with less than 3 years experience and bad English in the first place. (or certainly, I wasn’t aware of them)
Creative agencies do still import talent from the UK and other markets at mid and senior level. Sometimes this is because the imported talent is top quality and has an excellent background at world class international agencies and a company wants to give itself a competitive advantage. And sometimes it’s also because there just aren’t the local candidates to hire.
Creative agency planning/strategy is one area where maybe half of all senior figures are non Australians because the industry has never recruited and trained up enough graduate and junior talent and clients rarely want to pay for resource at this level. Add to this, the fact that our industry has significant attrition rates and the trend of a significant portion of good young Australian agency execs to head over the the US (and still sometimes the UK) and we have a massive shortage of mid to senior Australian strategy talent. This isn’t going away any time soon – it does after all take 5-7 years to train up a senior planner – so it’s vital for our industry that we can continue to sponsor the right international talent
‘Public Relations Professional’ is still on the list, albeit just the two year STSOL list. Not sure what the difference is with this and ‘Public Relations Manager’ which has been scrapped. Anyone know? Which is more senior? And if you have a permanent residency currently in the processing stage, from 457, will this be cancelled if the item has been taken off the skills list? This is a bloody quagmire.
I was shocked to see that marketing specialists were the 3rd most used category for 457 visas in 2015 according to the ABC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ts/8040548 (see table down the bottom)
It seems like its Brits giving jobs to their mates. There are a ton of Aussie applicants for every job. I know. I hired people and I got at least 50 CV’s for every position.
457’s have been rorted. Ultimately it doesn’t matter why. Australian jobs should be for Australians, except in the extremely limited situations where an Aussie is not available. Full stop.
Ton of Aussie applicants for each job? You’ve got to be kidding. When it comes to mid-level hires, there is a huge dearth of candidates, let alone talent, in the industry. The number of agencies having to make do with AM-shaped holes in their client teams is just too high and impacts long-term client service quality.
Then, the notion of Brits giving jobs to their mates. Any examples? My experience is that agencies are only too happy to interview UK candidates because a) they usually have highly relevant experience in a bigger global market and b) there isn’t an impressive Aussie candidate.
Australian jobs only for Australians is mindless. What is an Australian job anyway? An agency that works only for Australian-owned brands?
On a different tack, how about we ADD some job descriptions to the allowable list?
I’d like to start the ball rolling with:
* politicians or leaders that aren’t full of shit, being paid off by someone, and for once have a fucking clue on how to run a country.
Is PR not the reason that a bunch of unnecessary commotion around the changes to the 457 Visa.
I think some of these changes force change within Australian businesses, the digital industry still needs a couple years to weed out the management layers in businesses who right now show a lack leadership and ability to hire the right people instead of people they personally like and know.
There is plenty of untapped talent in AU but people opt for the easy options. If descriptions didn’t far exceed pay packages and people did’t “sell” different opportunities to what people experience in those businesses results would be different.
The last thing Australia needs is more PR people no matter where they come from. Fewer PRs – now that would be a godsend!
Totally Agree… PR = Spin
Oh No! A nationwide shortage of PR people. However will the country survive?
So ignorant and petty using this as an opportunity to slam PRs – as if there has never been an incompetent journalist before?! I’m a Brit and this level of rivalry shocked me when I got here – in London there is more mutual respect. In fact, I have more journo friends than fellow PRs. Consideration: If the rivalry started from a genuine frustration of a lack of competent local PRs… maybe that’s why you need more international talent to get it up to scratch?! However, I work with Aussie PRs who are s**t hot at their job. But watching some of them navigate through the early stages of their career and having to develop a thick skin to wear the criticism is a real shame. Compassion people, we’re all trying to put bread on the table!
Its a real shame that anti-globalisation pro-nationalism sentiment is on the rise around the world. what’s wrong with our snowflake liberal progressive media bubble!
“Australian jobs should be for Australians”
Ok Pauline
These visas and more have been open to rorting for too long. Check out the list of occupations that are said Australia needs. It is o joke. Eg hairdresser bricklayers concreters. These are available for all to see on immigration website. Do not tell me we need half of these to be filled. Australians first. Do not tell me we do not have people here to fill the roles with our high unemployment. Reskill upskill Australia