During the last few months we have been sitting on the edge of our chairs wondering one thing (amidst a million others) – will we get a second season of the Global Talent Visa program (‘GTES’)?
The GTES scheme was introduced on 1 July 2018 for a pilot season. In other words, the program had 12 months to prove itself as one worthy of a permanent pathway under the Temporary Skills Shortage visa class, and whether it had fulfilled its potential to enable specific in demand talent to be sponsored by tech savvy start-ups and established businesses in the digital market place.
With a sigh of relief we are happy to share that that GTES program has been granted a life line. The Government has consulted with industry, start-up and tertiary institution leaders ironically concluding that they have not yet reached a conclusion on the effectiveness of the GTES program. With this, the pilot will continue to be open to applications after 1 July 2019 until further notice.
As we have subtly alluded to in previous posts, we have been big fans of the GTES program. So much so that we swiftly engaged in navigating its new territory, becoming one of only four firms to have secured a GTES agreement in early 2019. During this period the GTES program was still off to a slow start and received a myriad of criticism. However, the latter half of this year has definitely seen a plot twist with an increased number of businesses jumping onto the GTES bandwagon successfully including two large non-tech companies; Rio Tinto and Coles and larger tech companies including Atlassian and Canva.
Albeit delayed, this wide and expansive welcome by both tech and non-tech companies says a lot about the programme’s effectiveness and the way in which it can be of significant use to all Australian businesses in today’s technology driven ecosystem.
At present, the Department of Home Affairs have not released any further information with respect to the cessation of the GTES however we are holding onto hope that current conversations will focus on ways to fine tune the program and any existing issues to improve its effectiveness rather than dismantle the program altogether.
With this being said and given the unknown, if you are still interested in taking the GTES route and how it can work for you, we encourage you to talk to one of our consultants or call us on 8234 8400.
