The long awaited, and very talked about, changes to the skilled emigration program for Australia has finally been announced. However, people who have been keeping up with the predictions should not be too shocked as to what they hear.

Some occupations, like hairdressing and catering, have been dumped to make way for highly skilled positions. This comes despite criticism from students who are attempting to enter into the easiest courses possible to gain entry into Australia.

All overseas students will be particularly hit hard by these changes, which will now leave many of them wondering about their future in Australia. Students following a course that is not on this new list must now get an employer to sponsor them before their visa application is even considered. There will be a temporary 18-month break for students to either change their courses or find an employer willing to sponsor them. However, without knowing what occupations will be on the new list, many students are left bewildered as what to do.

The MODL and Critical Skills Lists are both to be abolished. The MODL becomes redundant as of these new changes. The Critical Skills Lists will be gradually replaced by a new Skilled Occupations List, which will be drawn up by Skills Australia and will come into effect in the middle of the year. Priority will be given to more highly skilled occupations. The new list will be published by the end of April, and there will also be a review on the point based system.

Of course, the mining industry will apparently welcome this move. This is because, just last week, Western Australia noted that it was experiencing a mining boom. Not only this, but a number of jobs that are thought to be on the skills list are related to the mining industry.