Is anyone moving?

[Vorpal]

People, and how they end up with various jobs, or even careers, come in all sorts.

Some people do have vocations. My stepmother certainly did. She was a nurse all of her life. And one of my aunts was doctor. She had a vocation, too.

I am an engineer, and worked my **** to become one. Not something I would have done if I didn't have some passion for it. But vocation? I'm not sure. I have also done lots of other things, and I could be happy making a living doing other things.

Other folks just kind of fall into what they do. They take a part time job as teens, or try something in school and decide they can make a living at it. Others want to be their own boss, or pick something for the money they can make doing it. Some just join a family business, or do what their parents think they should.

In the UK and USA, teaching and nursing are both jobs that have relatively high entry requirements compared to the level of pay. They are among the lowest paid jobs requiring university degrees / years of training. They do have other benefits, such as a state pension, for those who work in public sector, and for teachers, the time off in the summer. But I think because of the pay, relative to the education and training requirements, they tend to attract a higher proportion of folks who are really keen or have vocations, and not just those who are doing whatever they fell into, or their parents picked for them.

[Ben@Forest]

People, and how they end up with various jobs, or even careers, come in all sorts...

Agree with all of that. I am in a vocation, l have used holiday to visit places to see that particular habitat or management. I have used holiday and my own money to attend courses or seminars which aren't relevant enough for an employer to stump up for them. Many people in the field l work in would have difficulty in knowing where work finishes and leisure starts..

But that's not true of all and somebody working for a wildlife charity for example may be a fundraiser, an accountant etc and have limited interest or knowledge of that topic. I've certainly worked with a good fundraiser who worked for a cancer charity before and went on to work outside charity fundraising afterwards.

[Oldjohnw]

I like vacations.

[Cyril Haearn]

Me and my family - we all moved to Glasgow about three years ago, before all of these problems started. BTW, it was pretty hard because we had a lot of stuff to take with us

From where? I realty admire the removal workers, shifting pianos and double beds up spiral staircase, that is work/sport!

[Bonefishblues]

I like vacations.

I had all mine when I was small. I particularly liked the one on a sugar lump.

[carpetcleaner]

The number of people who claim to have have vocations generally keeps pace with the number of jobs available in an employment sector, especially state funded jobs.

I have seen the education industry experience a huge boom in staff numbers over the last 30 years or so. I think most people just look at the jobs available and see which one suits them best and that true vocations are very, very rare indeed. Also, if many people did have vocations in jobs such as teaching or medicine it would not be necessary to pay market rates.

[al_yrpal]

I have always felt very patriotic. And when left what is now the MOD after my Engineering training the mantra of the day was 'export or die'. The UK was in a state of penury after WWII and Harolds devaluation focussed the mind. Quite by chance I began my career in a manufacturing company that exported most of its output all over the world and there followed a career studded with similar businesses. I always felt I was following a vocation by working in that sector and was doing something really useful. Its a terrible shame that we have lost much of our manufacturing capacity as has been amply demonstrated recently. I do follow the products that I had a hand in designing and the vast majority of them are still made in the same form. Some have been refined and developed to take advantage of modern electronics and some are now made by foreign companies that bought up or took over the companys that I worked for.
I am ashamed that the last part of my career involved selling imported software and hardware that the UK didnt produce.
However I still live in the UK and riding around the pink blue and white Devon lanes today I am convinced that I live in a very pleasant land and have no intention of moving.

Al

[Vorpal]

The number of people who claim to have have vocations generally keeps pace with the number of jobs available in an employment sector, especially state funded jobs.

I have seen the education industry experience a huge boom in staff numbers over the last 30 years or so. I think most people just look at the jobs available and see which one suits them best and that true vocations are very, very rare indeed. Also, if many people did have vocations in jobs such as teaching or medicine it would not be necessary to pay market rates.

I don't know why you keep saying that. Just because someone has a vocation doesn't mean they will put up with crappy pay forever. Job satisfaction may mean more than pay, but teachers and nurses still have to pay the bills, and poor pay combined with a poor or unsupportive system can grind down the most ardent & enthusiastic person. If they still want to teach or nurse, they may very well go do it in another country. Several of the British people I know in Norway are teachers who trained in England or Wales, but were not happy in the system there. They felt more and more that they were not teaching, but just getting kids to pass tests. So they came to Norway instead. One of them teaches English in the local primary school, a couple of them teach 4-6 year olds who have not yet started primary school (which starts in Norway the year children turn 6), and another teaches in an international (IB) school in the next town west of us.

[reohn2]

I don't know why you keep saying that......

The soonest ignored the better IMO.

[Ben@Forest]

Several of the British people I know in Norway are teachers who trained in England or Wales, but were not happy in the system there. They felt more and more that they were not teaching, but just getting kids to pass tests. So they came to Norway instead. One of them teaches English in the local primary school, a couple of them teach 4-6 year olds who have not yet started primary school (which starts in Norway the year children turn 6), and another teaches in an international (IB) school in the next town west of us.

But that of course works both ways. There will be Norwegians in the UK or the US (or anywhere else in the world) who don't want to return to Norway, doesn't mean Norway is any better or worse than where they are now, just it suits them better.

One definite reason some Scandanavians leave either permanently or for extended periods seasonally is the long dark winters. It was shown that a disproportionate number of Scandanavians were killed in the Boxing Day tsunami - because more leave their native lands.

And New Zealand, often extolled as an emigrants paradise from stay at home Brits, doesn't suit everyone. I've met a Kiwi in the UK who said 'wild horses wouldn't drag me back' and a UK teacher who, having emigrated there, brought her family back having been concerned about the standard of education. Was she right? I don't know, but that's the privilege of opinion.

[Cyril Haearn]

George Lansbury took his family to Australia and discovered that the streets were not paved with gold, there was a lot of unemployment, he managed to get back to the UK, back then plenty of people were stranded
He proceeded to try to expose lies told by firms selling passages to Australia
A bit different now, maybe, many people could afford to return

[Ben@Forest]

George Lansbury took his family to Australia and discovered that the streets were not paved with gold, there was a lot of unemployment, he managed to get back to the UK, back then plenty of people were stranded
He proceeded to try to expose lies told by firms selling passages to Australia
A bit different now, maybe, many people could afford to return

I've been to NZ twice, 10 years apart and a total of about 11 weeks. On both occasions l met a Brit who was wistful to come back to the UK, but either too far into their lives and/or without enough money to do so (the first time l went NZ house prices were considerably lower than in UK, the second time far closer to parity).

I also met a Rhodesian (that was how he described himself) who still hankered after southern Africa and talked to the Indian owner of a restaurant who said NZ was 'too quiet for him'.

But the parents of a very good, and one of my oldest, friends, were both emigrees from a hard-hit post war Glasgow, they had no regrets about leaving Scotland for NZ. So there's no one size fits all.

[Cyril Haearn]

Some people even move from up here to down there, back again, back again
Saves learning a new language I guess

[Marcus Aurelius]

I’ve got dibs on another place, however lockdown is screwing it up. I’m going to hang fire, if lockdown is lifted any time soon. Prices should come down a bit, and that’s good ( for me ).

[carpetcleaner]

Foreigners are still coming to the UK in great numbers.

What a vote of confidence in our country.

Why would anyone want to leave it?

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