London OE too tough? Head east

A Wellington principal is encouraging students to look to Asia for their Overseas Experience. Photo: Nanjing Road, Shanghai / iStock

Following the revelation that finding a career job in London may not be easy as once thought, a high school principal is saying we need to be looking to Asia as the next possible boom destination for the big OE.

Earlier this week, New Zealander Alex Hazlehurst posted an opinion piece about her struggle looking for a job in London - issues echoed by numerous Kiwis also struggling in the UK capital. Hazelhurst has since found a permanent role as a producer at Global Radio, but Wellington East Girls College principal Sally Haughton said her plight underlines the fact that Kiwis need to be open to opportunities in other areas of the world.

Haughton said she wasn't ruling London out as a key destination, but wanted students to increasingly be considering Asia for their travel or study destination - a region she said had just as many opportunities as Europe.

"What we're interested in doing is changing the way our girls are thinking about their futures and wanting to include Asia in that," Haughton said. "So we're wanting the girls to understand the change in the balance around the Asia-Pacific region and to see different opportunities and to be able to imagine themselves in Asian cities and looking at Asian business opportunities."

Haughton said Wellington East Girls had been doing a lot to try and encourage its students to see the opportunities in Asia, including teaching Mandarin at the school, organising a number of school trips and exchanges and training its teachers through Asia-New Zealand scholarships. Although language could be a barrier for students looking to move to Asia, Haughton said one of the bigger issues was around breaking the tradition.

"Many young people will know people in their families and extended families who have had those experiences [in the UK] so there will be family stories or family folklore about what they did when they were over there and when they were in their twenties," Haughton said. "I think there isn't as much information on how to do that and what that experience might be like," she said.

"One of the things that we want to do is just disrupt that story and shift the gaze, so part of the work we do is providing opportunities and experiences that make it possible for our girls to imagine themselves in Asian environments in the way that they more easily imagine themselves in the UK environment."