Specials this week at HELLO AUSSIE STUDENT SERVICES

You may have heard that NAVITAS English is one of the largest and best English colleges in Australia...

But did you also know that in addition to the top quality courses, teachers and premises - they offer some fantastic new new promotions for 2011?!

With campuses in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin and Perth, NAVITAS English is one of the largest English language training provider in Australia.

These are the highlights:

1) NEW 7 + 1 Cairns and Darwin Promotion;

• Valid for all courses: Day and special courses;
• Valid for Evening courses (Cairns only);
• Valid for longer bookings: 14 weeks + 2 weeks free, 21 weeks + 3 weeks free;
• Valid for enrollments submitted by 31st of March 2011;
• Not valid with any other free week promotion;

2) NEW Evening Classes in Cairns - from 2011 NAVITAS English Cairns will offer dynamic and convenient full-time evening classes everyday from 4:40PM to 9:00PM;

3) NEW Darwin Job Guarantee - to kick start the New Year, Navitas English Darwin is offering an incredible promotion for student who study for 10 weeks or more - they will be offered a guaranteed job! This promotion is available for new and extending General English students and will be available throughout 2011.

4) NEW Certificate IV in TESOL 

• Fantastic new 8 weeks course at introductory promotional price for 2011;
• For non-native speakers of English;
• Upper Intermediate /IELTS 5.5 entry;
• Students receive a qualification recognized by the Australian Government.  

5) NEW English for Work - a 2-week course helping students with job-search skills, interview techniques and other valuable tools, to find work in Australia.

6) NEW Free RSA - Students who study a minimum of 8 weeks and include "English for Work" within this time receive a free Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate;

Australian businesses suffer from skilles shortages

Almost one in three businesses are being directly affected by the skills shortages in Australia, with the state of Western Australia being the hardest hit, according to a Bankwest research.

Mining states WA and Queensland really feel the impact the skills shortages has on the businesses with more than 40% of the employers complaining they are being directly impacted by the shortages.

Bankwest said businesses in capital cities were having a greater difficulty in finding skilled workers than the ones in the regional areas. "37% of the businesses that experience skills shortages have recruited from interstate and 29% have recruited from overseas." Bankwest business CEO, Ian Corfield said the looming skills shortage was a concern for for many businesses, particularly given the ongoing resource demands from Asia and the growing infrastructure needs following the recent floods.

Nationwide, the industries with the most job advertisements include engineering, information technology and healthcare. Mr Corfield said businesses were fighting the skills shortage with better investment in education and better apprenticeship schemes.

"Business owners also argue migration is part of the skills shortage solution. More then three quarters don't think the government has listened to the needs of small and medium businesses in relation to the migration debate."

The Business Council of Australia believes that Australia has under-invested in skills and training which had to be a part of future population policy.

"In the meantime we would be denying ourselves some growth opportunities driven by the vibrancy of the regional economy here if we didn't import the skills we need." Mr Bradley of the Business Council of Australia said.

Melbourne - almost the most livable city in the world

Melbourne has again been rated above Sydney in the world most livable cities index.

Vancouver in Canada toped the most livable cities in the world list followed by Melbourne and Vienna on the third place.

Australian cities received top scores for education and health but Melbourne was the best despite a low score for traffic problems. Lord Mayor Doyle was thrilled by the news that Melbourne moved up the rankings in the liveability list. "We welcome the news that Melbourne has taken the number two spot" Mr. Doyle said. "We all love Melbourne for its parks and gardens and fantastic events and it's great to have it recognized for the great city it is. We have held the both the number one and number two spots in previous years. While we keep aiming for that number one spot, it's good to be in such esteemed company."

Sydney came 7th and Adelaide shared its 8th place with Perth. Sydney scored slightly less than Melbourne on crime. Brisbane came on 21st place in the 140 list of cities. Australian cities far outranked some of the worlds most popular destinations - London ranked 53rd and New York 56th place. 

The worst cities in the world to live were Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea on 138, Dhaka in Bangladesh on 139th place and Harare in Zimbabwe at number 140.