Hi all,

I'm soon leaving the British forces after 6 years and want to move to Australia, looking at Brisbane area.
I'm a fully qualified sparky in the UK, does anybody know how to transfer my quals to be respected in Australia or specifically Queensland?
I have all ready found a sponsor to get over there but that will just be laboring on low pay until i can find a sparky job, does anybody know how easy they are to come by around that area and roughly what the salary is like?

Many thanks,

Tom

 

HI,

Welcome to LIQ.

Not sure how many electricians are on our site but.....

Our sister site (Poms In Oz) has a thread for electricians. you may find your answers on there or post a question on the migration threads about getting your qualifications recognised.

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/jobs-careers/49852-electricians-thread.html

I hope that helps.....

 

Mate, If you come over there is plenty of work for sparkies. The companies i employ to do my electrical work have problems retaining them because they all go off to the mines.
Average salary would be around the 70k mark.
Depending on your quals, you may have to do a conversion course or maybe just accepted after a skills assesment. I'm guessing that as you are forces trained, you'd probably be fine.
Hope that helps you mate.
Have a look on seek.com for sparky jobs...there's loads
Good luck

 

Re assuring to know there are jobs for Sparkys. Australia LOVES moving the goal posts in the trades. However after many years of different tasks & hoop jumping Vettesse, IELTS etc., my Hubbie has also just qualified as an Australian Electrican while still in the UK, has his WA Qualificatian & Blue Bulldog Construction safe card, just got to do his capstone when he arrives in June & transfer to QLD licence.

Obviously he is qualified up to the hill but still I am concerned the Sparky job market may not be as good as we think while in UK or the pay?

 

Hi crystal64, can i ask where your hubby did that aussie electrical course? sorry new to all this lingo, my husband is a qualified electrician as of jan, and has been a data and voice cabling supervisor for years. hoping to go on data and voice for visa, but work as electrician eventually whilst out there. friends of ours have just come back from reccy in brisbane ( also sparky) said there was loads of work, and great pay too, so fingers crossed

 

Hi all,

My husband to an electrician !!! Is UK and New Zealand reg still faces some red tape ! How did your husband qualify as an WA electrician from the UK ?

We have just got back from 3 weeks in the Sunshine Coast and couldn't find any work ! We went through the yellow/white pages rang around etc, it may of been just bad luck ? My husband did talk to some fellow electricians out there and they said there is lots of work in the mines but alot less on the domestic/commercial front.

If anyone knows any different or has some good advice it would be most welcome

Hope this also helps others in a similar position.

Anouska

 

You may find more vacancies if you look at other areas of QLD, unfortunately a lot of people look at the Sunshine coast and the Gold coast and it tends to get saturated with people looking for work, unless you have to move to these areas I would suggest you also think of other areas like Townsville, Cairns or inland at places like Toowoomba. If you could find work in other areas and get your licenses then once established you could look for work in the area of your choice and move there when a suitable job is available.

 

No Lingo, that is not my thing, I just get it imprinted into me when hubbie talking about it. Like most we were really worried about after he worked for years as a qualified self employed electrician in UK where he could really work for 2 year as a sparky in Oz under supervision, not to mention the drastic pay cut about $20,000 to $70,000 respectively, answer with my husband NO. Anyway on visiting one of the work expos he was in the right place at the right time, an Australian recruitment/training company was there & took his details. Then a few months later they contacted him & you have to have your Vettesse or Off SHORE thingy oh & about £3500 & then you do the transfer test. It is done by the approving authority/college & it took my hubbie 4 days & major headaches, but he came out with it with a WA Australian electrician & a White card. Recently he was invite by the company to another show in Twickenham where all the top trade people, government, unions etc & must say all is genuine (if not liked by some big wigs Australian, as they lose out on money by having UK apprentices) He then does some capstone when he collect is license & can transfer to whatever territory he lives in.

Completely right about the mine jobs my hubbie after the qualification can be put forward to the miney people as they are badly needed. That is why this company started this programme to fill the mining skills shortage. Not sure what hubbie will do but as he is also a motorbiker, he might commute into Brisbane, or mines who knows as got in QLD?

To us this would seem logical & the point really as we want & need to work & we need not to live on the breadline in another country or we might as well stay in our own.
Plus it didn`t make sense to us that Australia desperately needs trades then makes them desperately needed trades (who are very qualified in their own country) held up under apprentice, crazy. Or very intelligent as government gets lots of money for what you would pay in apprentice training & the company of lower wages.:arghh:

Hope that help, it may seem that if you qualify in WA you got to fly in WA, do capstone, then transfer to your licence to your new home territory but for us it really is a no brainer.

Hope that helps?

x

 

aOh failing that my hubbie is also now a Posiden rebreather instructor (scuba diver to the lay), which is just being introduced to East Australia, so hopefully we won`t starve. :yes:

 

It all sounds like a huge headache to me

After paying nearly £6000 to get our visa's and traveling from the south coast up to Blackburn to spend a day being tested to have your qualifications verified to then pay another £3500.....arghh !!!!!

We lived in New Zealand and so my husband sat exams and passed (he is both UK and NZ) like your husband now both UK and WA, but the fee was very different it was $1800 at the time that was £600 !!!

I think so much of this is a money making business and they know that if we want it we will pay, I do believe in making sure that to whom they are giving visa's too should be trades/professions they need and want but should lower the fees they charge, once you have paid for everything to be verified you should then be able to work in that field as soon as you arrive!

Anymore info or help would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Anouska cx

P.s what is capstone I have tried to look it up but can't find anything for QLD.

 

Unfortunately it is simple economics your Off shore Licence thingy is only a part of being an Australian Electrician. Plus I didn’t want the headache of scratching around on an apprentices wages, to old for that now. Hubbie did Vetesse to get visa, but when arrive in Oz can`t work independently so technically as an apprentice & you got to work under supervision & then have A license held electrician sign off your work, then you have to attend night college (at a cost). Working as an apprentise after so many years a a qualified seems to me to be insulting & I really don`t think hubbie would have fared to well doing that. Also from my understanding, Wage difference from Apprentice to A grade Sparky is stupid Apprentices earn about A$20 per hour whereby a A grade electrician earns a minimum of A$60 per hour. Plus the cost of attending college courses & I believe about 2 years to get. That is a lot of lost wonga. We have paid to get our visa about £6000, but with my hubbie being able to earn a minimum of A$40 more per hour it seems a good investment. Plus when he went to the show on Saturday he was bombarded with sparky offers because he has this. As a Australian electrician you also need a Blue Bulldog safety card, he got that too with this, you get that from the course.

But lets face it you have to earn money as a migrant as you aren`t entitled to most benefits in Oz for at least 2 years, no fee NHS, the Government also recommended to us a minimum of A$35,000 with you to survive initially. So you HAVE to look at putting yourself in the best position for employment & earning the right amount of money straight out.

Capstone is the conclusion assessment to the A grade License, obviously the Australian don`t want fraud on this so he has to do this final assessment in Australia, which is verified by his photo id stuff, like when you do you IELTS.

Let`s face it this is all one big money making scheme by the Australians from wanting emigrating Brits. We also look at it as investing unlike Britian whereby Sparky jobs are so unprotected, in Australia they are protected by the union on a minimum hourly rate & if a house holder uses a electrician without a A grade license there are BIG fines for them.

Thing also is Australia love changing the goal posts & as I know the course my hubbie just sat is not liked by other territories due to the amount of money that is lost from that migrant Oz training/working senario.

All of this is to the best of my understanding but sure my hubbie would message help sparky to sparky of needed.

Crystal x

 

Hey crystal,

Just as I said money making !!!!!!!

May be good for them to have a chat, my husband will be in the same position as yours as he is New Zealand reg, they recognise state/territory New Zealand etc, he was told he just had to exchange it for a QLD one when he arrives but also that each time the original one runs out (ie WA or NZ ) he had to renew it before renewing the QLD, where you told the same ?

Also while we were there in oz and talked to other electricians they said the wages were $36-$45 per hour and only the mines pay the big rates ? We would be grateful to know who your husband talked to

It is so very confusing lots of info some good some not so!

Keep me updated on your progress.

Kind regards

Anouska xx

 

According to hubbie all that is changing this year in July/August time whereby you just have to renew in the territory you are working in, so in our case QLD. Top money is in the mines but that is silly money & would equate to lots more than A$60 per hour.

Where you going in QLD? When you arriving? We arrive June.

This has been a long, costly, haul so glad at the final finish line now. :yes:

x

 

Fully qualified WA & QLD elctrician & still no work

OK, we have arrived on Sunshine coast & been here 3 months now but have to say very disappointed at the hubbies job propects. My hubbie was a fully qualified electrician in UK 7 years, we have 175 visa & he is also qualified as fully fledged Australian electrician holding a WA & QLD licence. Despite this he remains unemployed. He has tralled the papers, the websites including mining, the recruitment agents, sent out loads of applications & CV`s & still nothing. As we don`t have an inexhaustable amount of money so we at this rate will be returning to the UK with this being a waste of lots of money & time. :arghh:

Any ideas of vacancies or bright ideas would be welcome as he has since leaving school NEVER been unemployed & he is feeling very deflated at the mo.

Thanks

 

Hey Crystal, sorry to hear your having a slow time over here. I landed in sydney in june and made my way up to brisbane with a few little stops on the way. like you i was also starting to get stressed over not being able to find work, as im backpacking its even harder as i dont want to invest in a vehicle. i also tried most of the things your husband has with cv's and job sites. eventually i had started to find the odd days labouring and signed up with an agency called 'drake' who if you have transport may be able to help you out. also if you haven't yet have a look on gumtree and also leave a post on there your self as that was how i ended up with work. one of my friends had done this and got contacted to start a job fitting solar panels, there are now 4 out of 5 of us doing this in our house and the other a fully qualed spark from the Uk has started working for a national company who quickly took him on as a TA and have subsequently offered him a full time job and sponsorship. this he found by sending emails and following up with a phone call. it also might be worth having a look closer to the city, there alot of solar companies round here looking for sparkys as there is a limitless amount of work in this field at the moment.

I hope you will find this helpfull and stop you from giving up your dream so quickly, there is work here and it will come.

Tom

 

Having worked as an electrician in Australia for two years I can tell you that the wages are between $30 - $40 an hour max and expect to work very hard for that.

 

Good to know, unfortunately we have been over here now 3 months, hubbie is a WA electrcian & QLD electrcian & he still can`t get work, daily tralling papers, website, agencies, recruitment, it is getting him down as NEVER been unemployed. Our money we can stretch out in January but without work we will be on a flight back to Blighty then with a big expense hole in our pocket. So even $30-$40 per hour is better than nothing which is what he is earning at the mo.