The Job Tour: Students paying $12,000 to get into hotel business

Olivia gets down to work.

After being in Queenstown for two days, we decided to go and meet the future of the city. So we went to the newly opened Queenstown Resort College. The school started in 2006, and is based around getting Kiwis trained and running the tourism industry.

Here we met, and chatted to four young Kiwis, one Aussie and an Irishman who are finishing their courses in adventure tourism and hotel management in December.

Considering the constant media reports about unemployment and the small job market, these students were pretty confident about their future job prospects.

As part of their course they do internships throughout the world, which they believe give them the practical skills that gets job offers.

The head of school Harvey Bourne says that the college teaches them practical skills rather than theory and that the skills mean that if they wanted to, they could run an international hotel chain within 10 years. And so you'd hope- they're paying $12,000 a year for their studies.

It seems like a phenomenal amount to pay for a job in an industry that is perceived as being very low-paid. During our time in Queenstown, this question has been weighing on our minds - as Kiwis do we work for money, or the pleasure and beauty of our jobs?

On our facebook we got some varied responses to the question.

Thane Haarhoff said "I think we approach the question from the wrong angle - we need to work where you 'fit' and then you adapt to the cost of living and anything else that goes with it ".

But Joshi Takanawa disagreed: "I'm an Aussie who recently just came back from NZ. Considering some things in NZ cost more than Australia and seeing how low your pay is, it's no surprise why so many Kiwis leave. "

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So we put the question to the tourism students. Irish Resort College student Dane summed up what we think is the jist of Queenstown employees. "At the end of the day, when you're lying on your death bed you're not going to be thinking 'I wish I worked in front of a computer more'. I'd rather have a job that I enjoy that will give me a basic standard of living , than with a higher standard of living with a job I hated,"

And it seems this is the general consensus of people in the area. Yesterday afternoon we traveled to Glenorchy and met some bubbly Kiwi skydivers. One of the guys, Rob, has done over 15,000 jumps. To us that seems so huge its incomprehensible. Rob, Lottie, Iain, and. Vasi from NZSkyDive told us they all got into the industry after having their first jumps. They all loved it so much that a career in jumping became inevitable.

Rob and Lottie learnt to jump in New Zealand where the most common schools are in Taupo or Christchurch. To do the course you pay $5000 and get nine jumps.

If you're good enough they get a further 25 jumps, and after passing a series of tests you get a certificate which allows you to be an instructor.

So we asked the question: If this is your work, then what do you guys do for fun? Rob takes nature photography, and Lottie has picked up paragliding. But after being in Queenstown you get the sense that everyone here finds their jobs fun.

Lottie was telling us that working in an industry like this gives them a lot of personal pleasure. Lottie says that seeing nervous people jump and seeing their reactions when they land, is the best part of her job.

And it's lucky these divers enjoy their jobs because they only get paid per jump. This means that if it's too windy, snowing, raining or just a quiet day, then they don't get paid.

But on a more positive note their jobs have taken them throughout the world. They've been jumping in Fiji, Switzerland, Aspen the French Alps, and Queenstown.

As part of our job searching mission for the ideal job, NZSkyDive askd us if we wanted to jump. But we're both quite cautious of heights, and the idea of jumping out of a plane seemed just a bit crazy.

So it came down to a question of, should we battle our fears and jump for the sake of search?

Find out what we chose in our video!