shellyk666

My hubby is a joiner. I was a compliance auditor for the Ministry of Justice in the UK, my new job is kind of along the same lines but isn't government. I feel really grateful that so far everything seems to be going to plan. I submitted loads of job applications over a couple of weeks using the STAR approach to answer the selection criteria, one of them was going to come through eventually lol The issue I had is that what I can do is often called a variety of different titles which made it difficult to search for, I'd have never come across the advert for the job I got had I not just looked through everything! My perseverance paid off quickly though on this occasion. It doesn't get too humid over in WA thankfully, I'm not sure I'd cope so well if it was so I understand why you still struggle. Good luck for your future xx

Hi everyone, It's been a while since I posted, I've been soo busy!! I made the move over to Perth from Nottingham at the end of October 2014 with my husband and 2 children (aged 7 and 4). The goodbyes were tough, especially my parents, but so far I haven't found it emotionally difficult at all. I can't say I'm really missing anything. I think this is probably what I'm most surprised about and I imagine you'll never know how you'll feel until you've actually done it. Everything I put in this post is of course my own personal opinion, your experiences and opinions may be very different to ours and that is ok. We arrived on a Friday afternoon, my sister collected us from the airport. She moved out here in March 2014 and our families are incredibly close. It was so lovely to see them again! The kids were really good throughout the plane journey even though they only had a few hours sleep. I arrive in Perth in a bit of a daze and the journey to my sisters home felt surreal, I couldn't quite believe we were finally here! My first impression was that I was surprised by how many trees there are and by how wide the roads are. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with my sister for as long as we needed to, in the end we were there nearly 8 weeks before getting the keys to our own rental. We enrolled our kids in the local school before leaving the UK, Ella secured the last kind place but for every other year from pre-primary upwards as long as you live within the boundary they have to take them. Compared to the primary school in England I personally prefer Winthrop Primary School so far. They appear very well organised and the teachers we've had so far have been great. Harry hasn't found that he's miles ahead or behind the rest of the class and the report we received for the last few weeks of last year suggested he was in a similar position to where he was deemed to be in the UK. The main difference for me is that there appears to be an awful lot of 'gifted and talented' programs. I'm still trying to get my head around it all but first impressions are good, they seem to recognise talented individuals and do something about it. This is an area I need to understand better though. Neither of us had a job to come out to. My husband, a joiner, responded to a few Seek adverts with his CV whilst we were still in the UK and secured some interviews for the week after we arrived. He was offered a job at the first interview and started work 3 weeks after landing. The work is not as high quality as he's used to and the people he works with don't appear to be particularly talented but he's happy to be bringing a wage in for now. We decided I would take a few months off, to settle the kids into school, find a house and get all the jobs ticked off. It also meant that I could have the kids throughout the school summer holidays and not have to worry about childcare and also I'd be off whilst my parents visited for 3 weeks in January. I had decided that I wanted to start work full time around the middle of February giving the kids a couple of weeks to settle back at school after the holidays. I starting actively applying for jobs in January, mainly government roles which often offer flexible working etc. As in the UK the government recruitment process is slow! I also applied for a couple of jobs advertised privately on Seek and following my first interview on Wednesday they called me on Friday to offer me the position. I start on Wednesday! For this job, and another government position that I wasn't shortlisted for, they commented on the large number of applicants having received over 50 applications. The role isn't for as much money as I think I ought to be on as I earned an above average salary in the UK but I'm happy to have gotten my foot in the door and it doesn't stop me continuing to look. Our combined salary will enable us to live comfortably and save a bit too. Leave Loading (where they pay you 17.5% more when you're on annual leave) and Salary Packaging (a salary sacrifice scheme where you are able to pay for some things directly from your salary before tax has been deducted) appear to be pretty common here. From my limited experience I'd say that 4 weeks annual leave plus public holidays seems to be normal (although I've got 5 weeks with my new job). I'd heard that daycare often get's booked up quickly and I have found this to be true. I visited 4 Daycare centres in November to secure a place from February and they had either no or very limited places left so this is definitely something people need to consider. If I had left it until I had secured a job to find a daycare place I'm not sure I could have found one. All public school students, including kindy, have a list of stationary and books to buy for each school year which adds up to a fair amount. I found it surprising that this stuff isn't provided by the school. At our school there is then 'voluntary contributions' of $100 per student and 'excursion fees' of $90 for each year. I was also surprised at the cost of school uniform. At our school you must wear the polo shirt with the school emblem and a particular type of shorts or trousers. They're pretty expensive when you're comparing it to Tesco or M&S. A school dress is $55/$60 and 1 polo shirt is $24 for example. Overall I don't find that cost of living in Perth is very different to that in Nottingham, with the exception of rental payments. For a family of 4 I spend around $250 - $300 on our weekly grocery shopping. I do a big shop at Spudshed and then a smaller shop at Woolworths or Coles. This isn't very much different to what I used to spend in the UK which was £130-£150. I've found that the range and cost of furniture to be pretty good to start us off. We bought a large Move Cube and decided to buy most thing again. Super Amart, Furniture Bizarre and Ikea are all pretty cheap and have started us off. The houses are so much bigger and are often more open plan. Apple products work out a bit cheaper over here too. I find most electrical items to be good value, the only thing I thought was expensive was fridge-freezers. I find entrance fees at attractions are generally good value when compared to those in the UK and there is plenty of free stuff going on. We've got solar panels and bore reticulation so hopefully our water and electricity bills will be ok. We pay $70 a month for an unlimited landline and broadband with TPG and they've been find so far, it's a lot cheaper than some of the others at the moment. We have a Pre-pay sim with Optus and pay $30 per month for 1G of data, 250 minutes and unlimited messages which is plenty for us, the cost of a months contract wasn't worth it for us. In the weeks after we arrived life was a bit like a whirlwind! We tried to find a balance most days of doing something for the kids and ticking something off the 'to do' list. We set up our Anz accounts from the UK and had to attend in branch to activate it and receive our cards etc. The service was good although the lady made a mistake on my debit card meaning I wasn't able to use it to pay for anything (that was embarrassing!) and I had to go back in branch, she'd checked the wrong box. I used TorFX to transfer our money. It felt wrong transferring such a large sum into their account following nothing more than a couple of phone calls but it was very easy and simple with no problems whatsoever. I was pleased with the exchange rate at the time. There was medicare, buying/registering cars, mobile phone contracts, centrelink and childcare. We've registered with a local GP practise although I need to read more about how medicare works cuz I don't really get it at the moment. If you're bringing a child under 7 be sure to get a copy of there immunisation records as it is needed to determine what catch-up program is needed and a copy is provided to the Immunisation Register. There were 2 that my daughter (4) hadn't received in the UK, Hepatitis B and Chicken Pox. She's already had chicken pox so the Dr was happy to confirm to the Immunisation Register that that one isn't needed due to a natural immunity but she's had to start a course of 3 injections for Hep B. Centrelink won't pay you any family assistance (including child care benefit or child care rebate) unless you are up to date with the Australian vaccinations or on a catch up program which is interesting. Moving into our rental made a big difference for us. Until then it kind of felt too much like a holiday. It wasn't as difficult to secure one as I thought it might be. It was the quality of the houses on offer that had me most worried! We were looking at a budget of up to $650 per week. A lot of them were in desperate need of an update (and a good clean!). On the odd day when the temperature approaches 40 degrees I'm grateful for the air conditioning in the evening and it can feel too hot to do very much at all unless it involves a pool. Although I am surprised by how quickly you become accustomed to the warmth. I love it that I now have day after day of sunshine, anything around 30 degrees is my fave. I'm not sure that the novelty will ever wear off for me. I very much prefer to apply suncream every day rather than getting wrapped up in coats, scarfs and gloves. I prefer sun hats to woolly hats lol. We're all really happy here so far and have no regrets. I can't believe we actually live in this beautiful place! Sorry this is so long, well done if you've made it this far! If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help

It is all quite daunting to begin with isn't it! But once you've got your head around everything required it's a good start. I found it helped having a big checklist and ticking things off as I went along then I kept everything together in a folder. I was so worried that I missed something but it all turned out ok in the end. Good luck, and if there's anything else you need help with there's always someone around to chip in x

Wow, that's short notice! Michael had his test in a Migration Agent's office in Manchester, he only took his passport and voucher, nothing else. He said that as long as you are actually a joiner you will have no problems. In fact he didn't actually do any research or prep at all and was still fine. The only bit he was unsure of was a question about explosive power tools, Michael was honest and just explained that he doesn't really use them (he'd also answered the question about explosive power tools in the TradeSET Questionnaire that way too) and clearly this proved to be ok because he was ultimately successful. The test was relaxed and the bloke was also a joiner, he didn't feel as though they were trying to catch him out. He said you really have nothing to worry about. Exciting!!!!!! Definitely let us know how you get on on Monday. I'll keep everything crossed you get a smooth ride xx GOOD LUCK! p.s. A bonus too is that although we were told it would take 10 working days to get the result it came through after just a week.

Hi Rose, Is your occupation a joiner? Although the principles are the same I understand the requirements can be different dependent upon the occupation. My hubby was a sub-contractor for many years and was then employed for the last couple which is slightly different than self employed. Yes you need to include written references from as many employers as possible and then do a statutory declaration for any periods you're unable to cover. When it asks for 'references' it doesn't just mean names and numbers. Have a good look through all the information on the Vetassess website as there is confirmation of everything the references have to include (such as that it was full time hours, the pay rate, tools used, work undertaken, start and finish date etc, plus it needs to be on headed paper with the persons position and telephone number). My husband didn't have an accountant (I did all his self assessment tax returns myself) but if you have one I'd suggest you get something from them. You should also show evidence of receiving payment (i.e. pay slips, CIS statements, bank statements and/or invoices). As ours is a trade occupation, although we submitted and paid online, we didn't have the option of uploading the evidence online, everything had to be sent in the post! We used Parcelforce. I hope that helps, good luck x

Hey, hubby got confirmation of his successful skill assessment in the post this morning and enclosed was also a Certificate III in Joinery. As you didn't get one I assume it must be different for a joiner and a carpenter - strange, but pleased that he's now got an actual Australian qualification Yey!

Just a thought Steve but I'm not sure it's a good idea to attach the actual Skill Assessment document to a public forum. I'm sure no one could print it and tamper with it in any way for their own use but as it has you personal details on I don't think I'd risk it.

Yes, I'm doing ti all myself. That would be great Steve. I'm sure I read on the Vetassess website that following a positive skill assessment a carpenter/joiner would get a cert III. I also have a recollection of reading that a test is required on arrival in Oz before you can get your hands on it though. Hmm, might look into that.

You got my hopes up then! Just checked the online status but it still says 'in progress'. If you did your interview last Wednesday and got your results on Tuesday then it took 6 days, it's only been 3 days for us so far but it'd be great if it came through so quickly! Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to look each day. Fingers crossed x

Hi Ashley, I wasn't aware that ACTS were registered to do the skill assessment for emigration purposes. I always thought it was either Vetassess or Victoria University for a carpenter. Things may have changed since I first started looking into it though so I may be wrong but suggest it'd be worth a check. We decided not to use an agent and as my hubby is the main applicant doing all the tests I agreed to do all the paperwork and organising. For the first part of the skill assessment - the Training and Employment Check, we submitted his CV, NVQ Level 2 & Level 3 certificates, Construction Skills Health & Safety Test Certificates (which had expired but I though they might help), 2 payslips for the beginning/middle/end of each period of employment covering the last 2 years, a P45, a detailed reference letter from each period of employment and a few photos of recent pieces he has made in the workshop. I included a List of Content so it was clear what each items was and that was it. Have you been self employed at any point over the last couple of years? If so the evidence you need will be different. My hubby said he'd have preferred to have done a practical assessment for the 2nd part of the skill assessment but there were none available and none scheduled for his occupation. He therefore booked in for the technical interview. It took place in Manchester on Monday. He said it wasn't an unpleasant experience, the bloke doing the assessment was fine. He was in there just over an hour and we're now waiting for the outcome. We're keeping everything crossed. If there's anything specific you'd like to know ask away and I'll do my best to help if I can.

Good to hear from someone else applying as joiner, everyone I speak to seem to apply as a Carpenter! Just wanted to mention that you need to score either 7+ or 8+ for each band (reading, writing, listening and speaking), the overall score is irrelevant. Sorry if you already knew that, I just didn't want it to catch you out! Along with my hubby's age, trade qualification and 8 years relevant work experience he needs to get a 7 in each band for IELTS so don't assume that you must get 8s to be able to apply. My hubby is booked in on Saturday morning and it couldn't come quick enough, we just want it over with lol Another 15 minutes until Vetassess Melbourne opens. I want to book the technical interview asap. Good luck, it would be great to hear how you're getting on. Michelle

Hi JR Well done on completing the first part of your skill assessment Next is either the practical exam or technical interview. What occupation have you nominated? You need to check out the next available In Country Assessments to see if/when the next practical exams are available for your occupation in the UK. We intend to do the technical interview simply because there are no practical exams scheduled for 'Joiner' at all! We paid the $1400 this afternoon and it says we now need to contact Vetassess to arrange a date, so I'm going to give them a call before I go to bed this evening (they're in Melbourne) and see what they say. Once you've got a positive Skill Assessment and the required result for IELTS you are ready to submit your Expression of Interest (providing you meet all the other criteria). What score do you need in the IELTS? And what Visa are you going for? Michelle

I didn't call but sent an email. I got not 1 but 2 replies, the first saying to wait and see what the assessor says as they may not consider it critical to the application, the second says they'll refer my question to an assessor who will be in touch soon. I don't feel as worried now. im considering using a tutor for a couple of hours in preparation for IELTS, it's more about technique in my opinion, especially the reading and writing. Michael hasn't had to do anything like it since his school days and I imagine that the majority of tradies are the same. Its lovely that your mum is doing it at the same time, we're hoping that my mum will consider if in a couple of years once they're retired. She's got a flight booked to go over to visit for 3 weeks in January, fingers crossed they love it! Are u using an agent? We decided to do it ourselves after seeing my sister shell out a fortune for an agent for what didn't appear to bd very much work. one thing I was wondering about is whether, following a positive skill assessment you can claim off having an Australian qualification?? I assume not though. how long did the first part of your skill assessment take??

We thought about going through Vic Uni but plumped for Vetassess in the end. Don't quote me on it but I think 'explosive power tools' include nail guns (they have an explosive cartridge that fires the nails out)?? My hubby would much rather do a practical assessment but considering there aren't any more dates available we don't want to wait around so he'll have to do the technical interview. He's much happier showing someone what he can do than talking about it under interview conditions! Oh well, needs must. He needs to retake his IELTS as well. He needs 7s but didn't quite manage it for listening (at least it's not just me he doesn't listen to lol) and reading. Going to book him in for early April. We're going for the 189 visa, a skilled independent. We were going to get WA State nomination for the extra 5 points but the new requirement of a 12 months job contract means there's no chance. After looking into it it doesn't look like we need he extra points anyway providing he can get 7s for IELTS. We've never visited Perth before, decided we want to give it a go anyway before we get too old and regret never venturing anywhere (hubby is 36 and I'm 33). Travelling around Asia and NZ for a few months sounds amazing, I don't blame you for taking advantage of the move without children in tow! We'll have to keep in touch, I've PM'd you x

I am sooooooo relieved to read that James answered 'No' to a mandatory question in TradeSET and still passed the first part! I was completely panicking that they were going to refuse it outright. I have read on the Victoria Uni website that you have to provide evidence for 80% which is why we submitted it with a 'No' in the first place, I haven't found anything similar on Vetassess but surely the rules must be the same as they both do the skill assessment for Joiner/Carpenter. I then thought about it too much and convinced myself that as it's a mandatory question the answer would have to be yes to all of them but then they only require actual evidence of 80% - if that makes sense! I know I'm going to begin worrying that the evidence isn't enough now lol I sent them another email this morning knowing that it was a public holiday in Melbourne today (Labour Day) but hoping for a response in the morning. I'm so worried and inpatient I was also going to stay up later this evening and phone them as well but I don't think I'll bother now. Thank you so much for having a look for me :wubclub: We're off to perth too! My sister and her family moved over only last week lol Providing everything goes to plan we've decided we want to go asap, maybe around September if at all possible so that my daughter doesn't have to start school here only to have to go back to nursery/Kindy when we get there. Our daughter is currently 3 and our son is 6. Have you got children? When are you hoping to make the move?

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I had posted another thread on Friday about TradeSET and have been worrying myself about it since! My hubby answered 'No' to one of the questions in it that was labelled as 'mandatory' and now I'm worrying that his skill assessment will automatically be refused. He's been a joiner/carpenter for 20 years and doesn't know a single one that uses computer operated machinery. So was this the situation for you as well then? Did James actually answer 'No' to some question in TradeSET but still pass the first part? I sent all our evidence off on Friday. I didn't note which competency each piece of evidence related to, I hope it'll be ok! I'm pretty sure we've covered everything though. I did email them on Thursday night as like you said they have always got back to me quickly but haven't had a reply yet. I had kind of assumed that you'd get a date of a technical interview pretty quickly, you'll have to let me know when you are given one. Where abouts are you hoping to move to? Thanks again

Hi I'm reading through the information available on the Vetassess website regarding the Skill Assessment (the Training and Employment part). I can see from the Evidence Guide that we need to complete a 'Cover Sheet' listing the Units of Competencies (that I have found in the Joiner Fact Sheet) and indicate which pieces of evidence support each unit. I assume that means I will need to list all 30 Units included in the Fact Sheet?? It also suggests we need 2 pieces of evidence for each unit! Does anyone know what happens if you don't have evidence of 1 of the 30 units? We're considering applying as a joiner but my husband has never used a CNC machine, he's fine with the rest. Do you think this would be a problem? Do you think they could fail his skill assessment because of this? Feeling a bit worried now! Many thanks