Young engineer - advice please

[andymo]

I have recently qualified as an engineer, gaining my National Certficate in Electrical/Electronics engineering & an advanced modern apprenticeship in electrical maintenance engineering & NVQ 3 in Electrical /mechananical engineering - but also have 3yrs experience as I was on one day release at college.

Does anyone know if the qualifications I have will be regarded as enough to meet the criteria for engineer? or should I proceed to complete my Higher National Certificate (which is 2 yrs) here in the UK.

I would rather be able to get employment and extra experience in Austrailia and hopefully continue to a higher/degree level there.

Does anyone know how I could go about trying to get sponsership?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks, Andy

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Andy

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

I have left your original post as it was but have copied it into the Migration Issues section as well so as to give your query maximum visibility.

I think your best bet will probably be to start by contacting some Migration Agents, because lackof PQE might be a problem here, though I really don't know: please be aware that the word is only "might", NOT "is"!

I would suggest that tomorrow morning, you ring up Go Matilda in Southampton and also Ian Harrop & Associates near Oxford. Plus Visa Bureau, though I am not sure where they are.

All good Migration Agents are happy to speak on the phone for 15 minutes or so at no cost to you. They need to be able to work out how good their chances would be of being able to get you a visa.

When you have spoken with some Agents and have some initial ideas from them, please come back and tell us what they have said. If they say that employer sponsorship is definitely something to look at, we can help you to investigate the idea in more depth.

Meanwhile, have you had a good scout round the DIAC website as yet? If not, it is never too soon to begin that! Please see here:

Department of Immigration and Citizenship

A-Z Occupations List - Australian Skills Recognition Information

Information Booklets - Applications & Forms - Visas & Immigration

Have a look at the engineering stuff in the ASRI list and see who you have to contact to find out more about engineering qualifictions etc, I suggest.

Best wishes

Gill

[fatpom]

Originally Posted by andymo

I have recently qualified as an engineer, gaining my National Certficate in Electrical/Electronics engineering & an advanced modern apprenticeship in electrical maintenance engineering & NVQ 3 in Electrical /mechananical engineering - but also have 3yrs experience as I was on one day release at college.

Does anyone know if the qualifications I have will be regarded as enough to meet the criteria for engineer? or should I proceed to complete my Higher National Certificate (which is 2 yrs) here in the UK.

I would rather be able to get employment and extra experience in Austrailia and hopefully continue to a higher/degree level there.

Does anyone know how I could go about trying to get sponsership?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks, Andy

Unless things have changed (& they probably have?) an HNC won't help for the purpose of migration as its your apprenticeship that counts over your technical quals. Its probable that your NVQ3 meets the trade level requirements... certainly would to employers. If you have to get some post apprenticeship experience, then I'd say your well advised to do your HNC as it is equivalent to an Australian Diploma and is well regarded. It basically says to employers you're a tradesman with technical know how and capability. There are far too many office based engineers... like me.

There's plenty of work for maintenance electricians and the pay is pretty good due to the mining boom.

You need to be aware that there are few hoops to jump through to get an electrical license. You need an electrical license to do any power work although not electronics (ie low voltage doesn't require a license). Its pretty easy to do the study for the license I'm told, just takes some time.

[heieup]

Hi,

You'll not get recognised as an 'engineer' for Aus without an engineering degree. You might however get the assessment as 'engineering technician' instead which is still quite in demand over there. Check out the Engineers Australia web site which has all the details for skills assessment for an engineering qualification.