Failed to finish your college degree and feeling uncertain about your career path? Or maybe you are not qualified enough to make that career change you always dream of? In fact, Australian market is now full of high-paying jobs without a degree required. You only need a certificate and suitable training to hit the ground running.

Bookkeeper

With only a minimal number of classes and no previous experience, you can land this well-paying job. As a bookkeeper, you will produce financial records, organise documents, and check for financial accuracy. The education and experience requirement is minimal, but the career will see a decline in available positions, due to software that help reduce the amount of people required to keep accurate books. Basic math and computer skills are required, which can be learned in a few postsecondary classes. Some job candidates, assuming they have the right skills, can actually be hired with only a high school degree.

Pharmacy Assistant

Pharmacy assistants (also called dispensing assistants) work as part of a pharmacy team under the direction of a registered pharmacist. Your work setting would mainly be in retail pharmacies, hospitals or NHS organisations where you are in charge of selling pharmaceutical goods, filling prescriptions, managing stocks and greeting clients. A combination of lucrative income and meaningful career path, it is easy to understand why the number of people working as pharmacy assistants in Australia grew strongly in the past 5 years and are projected to increase til 2023.

There is currently no formal qualifications required, yet joining vocational training and short courses will be beneficial for applicants. Upon completion, you will be equipped with practical knowledge like health and safety, manufacturing medicine and dispensing prescriptions. 

Real Estate and Property Management

It has been predicted that Australia needs 97,800 real estate and property service workers by 2022. Needless to say, the job prospect is significant and future agents can expect a lucrative income. All you need are a Certificate of Registration (what you need legally to join the industry and could be obtained through short online courses) plus practical skills and insights to establish your client base.

As a professional real estate agent, your daily tasks generally include advertising property for sales, accompanying prospects in site visit, consulting relevant information and preparing contracts. Currently, the heavens for real estate agents in Australia are New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

Pet Care and Vet Assistant

If you are into helping animals and pets, this career choice is absolutely for you. By acquiring certain certificates through short courses (whether online or in-class), you can start working as a qualified vet assistant in animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, impound centres, animal protection agencies (e.g. RSPCA) and even pet shops across Australia. The degree-free profession is not only well-rewarded but also fun to work and fulfilling for animal lovers.

While the commonest career path is applying into a pet clinic, Vet Assistance and Animal First Aid graduates also find themselves working on farms, animal shelters, education settings or even in zoos. A vet assistant will often start in general practice to gain experience, then move into specialist fields or referral facilities if they wish to be further challenged.

Mining Professional

The mining industry has been a shining star for the Australian economy in the past several years. As a result, mining professionals are well rewarded with attractive salary and career opportunities. While managerial and technical positions do require tertiary qualifications (in exchange for the median salary of $300,000 or more), other vacancies are based on experience more than on degree and certification.

As a novice, you can enrol in short online courses to get certified, then seek entry-level positions for an incremental pay bump. On the downside, being a miner requires tremendous strength, tolerance in harsh working environment and interest in mechanical operation.

Animal Trainer

There is a misconception that an animal trainer only works with pets and their employment is limited to private practice organisations. In fact, if you wish to join the pet care industry or the law enforcement, being a trainer is always a good option. You can even run your own animal training business or choose to work alongside veterinarians, in animal shelters or with rescue charities.

Especially, dogs and horses are popular service animals that help people with disabilities, assist in the medical field and to protect society through Police Force or other government agencies. These animals require the highest standard of care and training. Aim to try such a challenging and exciting career path? You can start anytime with our online course in Dog Care, Training and Psychology.

IT Programming

IT Programmers create, write, and test code that allows computer programs and applications to function. They typically need to know a variety of computer languages, including Java and C++. They might work for a computer systems design company, or they could work for software publishers or financial companies, among others. Because this work is done on the computer, many programmers telecommute, which allows for flexibility.

While many computer programmers do have a bachelor’s degree, some only need an associate degree, or extensive experience in coding. Programmers can also become certified in specific programming languages, so these certificates can also help a job candidate get hired. Another option is to get the skills you need to get hired by attending a bootcamp.