Elisabeth Champion
A Mount Gambier/Berrin daycare centre has turned to a unique Visa program to help address staff shortage.
Mount Gambier Child Care Centre has seen three migrant women settle in as permanent staff for the next three years, providing some relief for the centre amid a national childcare educator shortage.
A survey done by the Australian Childcare Alliance in 2023 of 477 childcare services in the country revealed that half of the centres surveyed had to put a cap on enrolments, withholding a total of 11,123 places from families within the week of 9-13 October.
The Derrington Street centre is no different, having faced the same issues as others in the region, with Covid restrictions, mandates and work pressures leading to resignations.
Director Fiona Paltridge turned to the Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) program as a way of combating the staff shortage.
DAMAs allow South Australian employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers for positions they are unable to fill with local workers.
It is the only childcare centre in the South East to be part of the program.
The program has allowed three migrant women – two from the Phillipines and one from Sri Lanka – to be supported by the centre to settle in the region.
Now, they have made Mount Gambier their home.
Sachila Dediyagala moved to Mount Gambier from Melbourne with her family for the job, and from the start said she was welcomed to Derrington Street centre with open arms.
“I love it here – when I first started I struggled with everything, but now I am used to it, it’s fine,” she said.
“I love the staff, because I am from another country and they are all very welcoming.”
She said Ms Paltridge supported her when they first moved from Melbourne, even helping her with accommodation.
“When I moved here, I didn’t know anything about Mount Gambier but I really wanted to move for my visa,” she said.
“When Fiona rang me and told me I could come, I was like, ‘oh, I’m coming as soon as possible’.
Jo Alagaban spent time in Sydney and in the Northern Territory, before finding her place in Mount Gambier, with her husband and children.
“It’s really a great opportunity that we were able to come to this place, especially being able to work at this childcare,” she said.
“At first, we came here just on a student visa then we went to study for two years and after that, I was hopeless thinking about there’s no other pathway that we can take, and then we learned about this visa.
“It’s like a light for us that there is something that we can prolong our stay here in Australia.
Ms Alagaban said Mount Gambier had been a change, but a positive one.
“It’s really a big change because the place that we’ve been it’s really remote, totally remote,” she said.
“There was a sponsorship opportunity there but if you’re not happy, you’re not happy.
“It’s really perfect timing – I saw the ad that they are needing people that are diploma qualified to come here so I applied and I was very lucky.”
Like Ms Alagaban, Aileen Castaneda came to Australia on a student visa in 2019, and then after COVID hit, decided to continue studying in Brisbane.
After three years, Aileen and her husband decided to move to a regional area, and came across the job ad.
“I hesitated to come at first because I heard a DAMA visa for a childcare educator is not that easy, you need to find the right centre that will offer it to you,” she said.
“Before coming here, I was hesitant, but we needed to really try it.
“I really thank this centre and Fiona for giving us the chance to stay longer in Australia and to give us the visa that we needed.”
After three years on the visa, the women will be eligible to apply for permanent residency.
While the agreement was a great opportunity for both the centre and the staff, it was not without its trials – the process was complicated, and expensive.
Ms Paltridge first started the process in July 2021, and it was only in July last year that the positions were finally approved.
The visas form part of the centre’s 2023-2026 Workforce Development Plan, which aims to address the educator shortfall.
