If you’re seriously thinking about coming to the UK and staying for a while, you should also seriously think about getting a job before you get here. With everything that’s going to happen to you in the first few weeks of arriving in Britain, one thing you need is a source of income!

Working in the UK

Working in the UK can be a great experience, wherever you are, and the biggest cities like Birmingham and London offer huge diversity in culture, as well as being great places to find employment.
 
Even if you end up working in the capital, the island is so small that you can easily reach many places to visit. So, after a hard week at work in the city, spend a couple of hours on a train you can be in the Welsh mountains for the weekend!

If you are from outside the EU then it’s possible you will need a work permit before you can come and work in the UK, and if not, you might still need to register with the authorities when you start work. In July 2010 a temporary immigration cap of 24,100 was introduced and this will affect Tier 1 and Tier 2 visa. The highly skilled migrant visa - Tier 1 - will have cap of 5,400. The sponsored skilled migrant visa - Tier 2 - will have a cap of 18,700. A long-term cap will be introduced in April 2011. For further information please have a look on the Border Agency website.

But if you’re a student, or are a ‘highly skilled’ person, then you may be able to work while you are here without permission, but you need to check e.g. how many hours you can work and other conditions. This is important as the penalties for working illegally are severe. To find out for sure which rules apply to you, check the relevant government websites.

Job Hunting 

So once you’ve found out how you can work in the UK, you can start looking for a job! There are lots of ways of doing this. Probably the easiest way you can find work in the UK is through one of thousands of employment agencies. They are a great way of being able to match yourself with an employer that needs your skills in an area you want to live.

Most of these are general agencies which offer all kinds of jobs to all kinds of people whether they are British or from abroad. For example, there are agencies that have branches all over the country which can help you find many unskilled and skilled jobs in anything from packing boxes to driving a truck.

But if you are trained in specific skills, there are also agencies which concentrate in one or a group of areas. For example, Jacaranda Recruitment specialise in placing Social Workers from Europe in the UK.

If you are going for a job in a specific profession, find out if you need to register – for example, jobs involving work with children will require you to go through a process of checks before you are allowed to work. Some jobs require a Criminal Records Bureau check and others require professional registration which can be done before you leave home and may take several weeks, if not months.

It is important that you think about this carefully before you come to the UK. If you have a specific profession, you could find out that when you get to the UK, there are no jobs in your line of work, which could affect your plans significantly. So don’t be complacent – apply for a job before you come.


By Matt Taylor

To be listed here click

USEFUL WORDS

look for a job
job hunting = looking for a job
apply for a job
employment / recruitment agency
job centre
skilled / unskilled job
work permit
Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Check

Work Idioms
A: Everything’s gone wrong today, hasn’t it?
B: Yes.  It’s been one thing after another
A: Shall we go for a drink after work?
B: No thanks.  I’m tired.  I’ve been on the go all day
A: So, is Wednesday a good day for you?
B: No, but I can fit you in on Thursday
A: Have you had many customers today?
B: No, it’s been dead all day
A: You’ve had a lot of customers in the morning, haven’t you?
B: Yes, we’ve been rushed off our feet!
A: Can I talk to you about a problem that’s just come up?
B: Sorry, I’m tied up until after lunch

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Less and Least

less and least are the opposites of more and most:
The job is less complex / more simple than you might think
It’s the least complex / the most simple explanation

Use less with both long and short adjectives:
It’s cheaper.  It’s less expensive.
It’s more expensive.  It’s less cheap.
It’s easier.  It’s less difficult.
It’s less interesting.  It’s more boring.

More examples with less and least:
My back hurts less if I lie down
I need less sleep now I’ve stopped jogging in the morning
I see her less often now that we don’t work together
The bus is the least expensive way to get around London
The least difficult way to find a job is to visit a recruitment agency