Hello everyone!

My name is Lucie, I live in Belgium, Europe. I will be 18 next year.
I am looking for a job for the summer of 2011 and I'm also thinking of going to college in Australia. In other words, I would like to start a future there.
But I have no idea how to even begin to look. How do I look for a student job on the other side of the world?
Can anyone maybe just point me in the right direction?

thanks

That's a big step for you Lucie and of course you'll need to consider finances so if you'll not have been working long since leaving school and if your parents are not up to covering the high costs, I'd suggest you work as much as you can for a year, even a second and third part-time jobs if need be to save as much as possible in the first place.

Most studying in Australia requires enrollment in an approved course to get a student visa , details @ Students - Visas & Immigration
More info @ Study in Australia

One thing you may want to consider prior to studying here is doing the Working Holiday Visa - Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417) and that would allow you to travel/work/ WWOOF Australia for even up to two years and you could even separate those years by study in between with timing planning and if by a summer period you mean European summer, that is probably not so good as winter here is not the best time for WHV work.

If you came to Australia in the Eurpean Autumn of a year that would not be so bad, though after a year you would still have quite a few months to start up of the studying year for the year after a WHV, ie., say arrive October on WHV to following September, Academic year does not start until February.
Rather than use up your second WHV straight away, you could consider heading over to New Zealand on a WHV for there - New Zealand Immigration Error Page , have a look about, earn some more money and return in time for start of the course, or alternately just head there on a tourist visa and do some wwoofing, also saving their WHV for a later year.

That would give you the possibility of seeing all different sorts of career paths both in Belgium, Australia and perhaps NZ to help with a field of study choice and just as importantly you could save some more funds for the fees for international students are high and you are limited to twenty hours a week work whilst studying and seeing as good courses of study, ones leading to higher qualifications can be 3-4 years, separating those years with the further WHV full years will allow you to keep supplementing funds more.

So most things in life are possible Lucie, but just some good planning and preparedness for some hard work needed for most of us.

You'll find more info/threads on visas, study and travel in Australia in the other sections of the forum.