What to expect...a reality check
This page is intended to be a reality check for participants wanting to join our rural work programme.
You are coming to Australia to do a real job for real pay. Many of you have little or no previous experience of the outdoors, farming, or the rural and outback environment.
Please be aware that this is no easy ride. We will train you, give you some basic skills, show you what is expected and prepare you to do well. We will be able to offer you access to work experiences where you will learn and develop. You will build confidence and skills and these, in turn, will lead to further jobs at increasing levels of skill or adventure.
You won't become Crocodile Dundee, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman or even McCloud's Daughters in your first few weeks here. You have an opportunity to build up to experiences like that so that after several months of work you may well have experienced something of those worlds.
The Visitoz programme is not a package holiday. Paying and turning up does not guarantee work of a certain type or your success here. You have to engage fully, get completely involved in everything, be energetic, hard working, willing to learn and try new things, and become good at finding ways to be useful. This will shape the way your experience develops.
Your success here is mostly down to you and is determined by your attitude. You also need to be physically and mentally fit.
The programme is a completely interactive experience in a real, hard working environment that can be emotionally and physically tough. Rural Australia is still something of a frontier; the experiences you can gain here can not readily be found anywhere else in the world.
If we have accepted you for our programme then we have done so because one or more things in your application form told us that you would be capable of succeeding in this environment. Thousands of young people from all walks of life have succeeded here since we began this programme in 1991.
Please do not make the mistake of assuming that the great experiences that so many people speak of having had in rural Australia will come to you easily. You will have to work hard for them and you will have to deal with many new and potentially challenging circumstances along the way, especially at the beginning. Please also leave any 'FAD' eating habits at home as they will not be so easily accommodated here.
It won't all be easy, and there may well be some things that you may not like. Be prepared for it to be tough; that is all part of the adventure and this is what will make it feel all the more worthwhile long after you have returned home.
You don't have to be a superhero to succeed here. Around 10,000 young people have enjoyed and experienced good and great things in rural Australia with Visitoz since 1991, many probably just like you.
As the saying goes, 'life is 5% what happens to you, and 95% how you react to it'.
Above all, know that so long as you act in good faith with your employer, try hard and work hard, Visitoz will support you every step of the way. We look forward to welcoming you to Australia.
Our Guarantee
We can guarantee work because we gather a profile from you as part of the application process. We make sure that we are confident of the potential of your skills and attitude before we take you on to the programme. We have a network of approximately 2,000 employers of all types and sizes all over rural Australia. We are therefore confident that we can find you work that will match your skills and abilities once we have assessed and accepted your application form.
Our guarantee is that we will offer you paid work at the end of your training course.
The work offered will be matched to your skills and previous experience; and your attitude and performance on the training course will also be considered.
The job or jobs offered will depend on your existing skills and abilities, your ability to apply them to a rural job in Australia and also on the vacancies available to Visitoz at the time of your training course.
The guarantee is offered subject to your wholehearted and committed participation in our training course. We need to see a genuine willingness to learn how to be a safe and useful worker for a rural employer and development of skills and / or attitude to a suitable standard.
Visitoz reserves the right to retract a job offer, or not offer work to participants who do not participate fully with all aspects of the training course and meet these basic criteria.
Employability Limitations in rural / farm work
There are some limitations to our guarantee of work. Workers who fall into the following categories will need to bear this in mind and be more flexible about the type of job they accept and the location of that work.
On very rare occasions it may be necessary for workers to need to wait for a short time before a suitable job comes up.
During this period you may be offered the chance to gain more experience and skills by working for your keep at the Visitoz training farm or at another volunteer farm.
Alternatively you may be offered discount accommodation at one of our partner hostels while you wait.
This page is intended to be a reality check for participants wanting to join our rural work programme.
You are coming to Australia to do a real job for real pay. Many of you have little or no previous experience of the outdoors, farming, or the rural and outback environment.
Please be aware that this is no easy ride. We will train you, give you some basic skills, show you what is expected and prepare you to do well. We will be able to offer you access to work experiences where you will learn and develop. You will build confidence and skills and these, in turn, will lead to further jobs at increasing levels of skill or adventure.
You won't become Crocodile Dundee, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman or even McCloud's Daughters in your first few weeks here. You have an opportunity to build up to experiences like that so that after several months of work you may well have experienced something of those worlds.
The Visitoz programme is not a package holiday. Paying and turning up does not guarantee work of a certain type or your success here. You have to engage fully, get completely involved in everything, be energetic, hard working, willing to learn and try new things, and become good at finding ways to be useful. This will shape the way your experience develops.
Your success here is mostly down to you and is determined by your attitude. You also need to be physically and mentally fit.
The programme is a completely interactive experience in a real, hard working environment that can be emotionally and physically tough. Rural Australia is still something of a frontier; the experiences you can gain here can not readily be found anywhere else in the world.
If we have accepted you for our programme then we have done so because one or more things in your application form told us that you would be capable of succeeding in this environment. Thousands of young people from all walks of life have succeeded here since we began this programme in 1991.
Please do not make the mistake of assuming that the great experiences that so many people speak of having had in rural Australia will come to you easily. You will have to work hard for them and you will have to deal with many new and potentially challenging circumstances along the way, especially at the beginning. Please also leave any 'FAD' eating habits at home as they will not be so easily accommodated here.
It won't all be easy, and there may well be some things that you may not like. Be prepared for it to be tough; that is all part of the adventure and this is what will make it feel all the more worthwhile long after you have returned home.
You don't have to be a superhero to succeed here. Around 10,000 young people have enjoyed and experienced good and great things in rural Australia with Visitoz since 1991, many probably just like you.
As the saying goes, 'life is 5% what happens to you, and 95% how you react to it'.
Above all, know that so long as you act in good faith with your employer, try hard and work hard, Visitoz will support you every step of the way. We look forward to welcoming you to Australia.
Our Guarantee
We can guarantee work because we gather a profile from you as part of the application process. We make sure that we are confident of the potential of your skills and attitude before we take you on to the programme. We have a network of approximately 2,000 employers of all types and sizes all over rural Australia. We are therefore confident that we can find you work that will match your skills and abilities once we have assessed and accepted your application form.
Our guarantee is that we will offer you paid work at the end of your training course.
The work offered will be matched to your skills and previous experience; and your attitude and performance on the training course will also be considered.
The job or jobs offered will depend on your existing skills and abilities, your ability to apply them to a rural job in Australia and also on the vacancies available to Visitoz at the time of your training course.
The guarantee is offered subject to your wholehearted and committed participation in our training course. We need to see a genuine willingness to learn how to be a safe and useful worker for a rural employer and development of skills and / or attitude to a suitable standard.
Visitoz reserves the right to retract a job offer, or not offer work to participants who do not participate fully with all aspects of the training course and meet these basic criteria.
Employability Limitations in rural / farm work
There are some limitations to our guarantee of work. Workers who fall into the following categories will need to bear this in mind and be more flexible about the type of job they accept and the location of that work.
- Workers with limited ability to speak and understand English (an important safety issue)
- Couples or pairs who insist on working together
- Unskilled, unfit or inexperienced workers
- Workers who show very little aptitude or enthusiasm for work, or for learning new skills
- Smokers (as some employers do not tolerate the habit)
- Those who have restrictive dietary requirements, as it may not be possible to provide for you in rural Australia
- Workers who have very specific job requirements
- Workers who have specific location requirements (often the case if you have a car)
- Workers who have very specific time requirements
On very rare occasions it may be necessary for workers to need to wait for a short time before a suitable job comes up.
During this period you may be offered the chance to gain more experience and skills by working for your keep at the Visitoz training farm or at another volunteer farm.
Alternatively you may be offered discount accommodation at one of our partner hostels while you wait.