The $200,000-a-year job you DON’T need a degree for: The unusual career choice that comes with a six-figure salary - and requires just four months of training
- Metro Trains Melbourne pays control room staff starting salaries of $120,000
- This rises to $200,000 for senior colleagues even though little training involved
- They earn even more than school principals and even CEOs of small companies
One career requiring no university experience or formal qualifications is offering starting salaries of $120,000 that rise to $200,000 with promotions.
Train controllers on Melbourne's rail system earn more than school principals and even chief executives of small companies, even though it only requires four months of training.
From an undisclosed central command room, those Metro Trains employees are responsible for monitoring closed-circuit TV cameras across the transport network to check for sick passengers, faulty trains or dangerous situations.
One career requiring no university experience or formal qualifications is offering starting salaries of $120,000 that rise to $200,000 with promotions (Metro Trains controller pictured)
A train controller salary starts at $120,000 and rises to $200,000 for senior train controllers, a Metro spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.
The starting salary alone is already a whopping 46 per cent higher than Australia's average full-time salary of $82,435.
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The job doesn't require a university degree but to be selected, applicants must pass a 'situational awareness' test.
Once they are hired, controllers undergo four months of training, which includes three weeks in the classroom, a fortnight of operational training and 12 weeks with an on-the-job trainer.
From A central command room, those Metro Trains employees are responsible for monitoring closed-circuit TV cameras across the transport network to check for danger
They then complete exams during the morning or afternoon peak-hour periods.
Even the most junior train controllers earn more than school principals, who take home $115,000 a year while senior controllers earn more than the chief executives of small companies, who have average salaries of $158,000, Australian Taxation Office data showed.
They also earn even more than airline pilots, who have average salaries of $145,000, and insurance actuaries, who earn $161,215.
State government rail employees are among some of Australia's best paid workers.
Queensland Rail pays its drivers a median full-time salary of $130,000 a year.
Queensland Rail train drivers (pictured) are already well remunerated, earning a median full-time salary of $130,000 a year
After generous overtime the top-paid Citytrain network drivers earn between $182,000 and $193,000 a year, which is almost as much as a federal member of parliament.
Then there are the generous overtime provisions.
Under the Fair Work Commission's Rail Industry Award, train drivers are paid $66.93 an hour - or double-time-and-a-half - on public holidays.
Drivers on Melbourne's Metro Trains network receive time-and-a-half with a day in lieu or double-time-and-a-half on request for working New Year's Day and Australia Day.
The transport sector is one of the most generous in Australia, outside of medicine, with railway track workers receiving average salaries of $103,000, which is even more than aircraft maintenance engineers, who get $102,000.
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