SimonInVIC

Hi, it can be difficult to find a job on a restricted licence though its far from impossible. It took me 4 months to find a job but once I did, I made a few contacts and I haven't been out of work since. You will earn less working on a restricted license, how much less will depend on which state you're in and also the company you work for but the wages over here are pretty good most places that I've worked.

They're no worse than the aussie government who still claim to want over 7000 electricians per year, with the freedom to locate to anywhere in Australia, when in the big cities there's already hundreds if not thousands of aussie sparkies out of work already.

You've definitely got to try cycling beach Road, thousands of cyclists ride it every weekend and it's a nice flat ride following the coastline. There are bike lanes on the road and also a dedicated bike path alongside. As for cycling on the roads being dangerous in Australia, it is no more dangerous than Britain. The roads are wider and there are a lot of roads with cycle lanes built onto them and generally people will give you enough space as they pass. As an avid cyclist here and in Britain before I left, I would say I feel much safer cycling in Australia than I ever did in Britain. If you are looking for more of a challenge then why not try the 7 peaks challenge, it runs from October through to March and involves cycling to the top of the 7 mountains in Victoria which have ski resorts on top. I completed it this season and it was great fun but obviously a reasonable level of fitness is required to get you to the top and some bike handling skill will help you get down again safely.

Hi Jshezza29, I can't say it's any easier to find an electrical job once you have finished your WHV and got your full visa. I was in the country for 4 and a half months and applying for jobs daily before I finally managed to secure employment. People don't seem to be interested in helping you gain a licence as there are so many licenced sparkies around who can go out unsupervised earning the company money right from the start. You just have to be lucky and hope someone gives you the benefit of the doubt. I was suprised to learn how many unemployed sparkles there are about, I am living in Melbourne so I can't say for certain in your area but I have been told there are hundreds of applicants for most electrical jobs so I can see why the companies stay away from the unlicensed foreigners. You are also right about the amount of red-tape and hassle to gain your licence, it is very expensive and time consuming and although you can gain your licence within a year it is really like a mini apprenticeship all over again even though the UK qualifications are equal to the Australian ones. Good luck getting your licence and hang on in there, it is possible

Hi Kayley, have you booked your special class assessment yet? I know Futureskills run a preparation day for the general electrician assessment and I would highly recommend to anyone to complete this first, maybe they run a prep course for the special class aswell. What type of work are you doing in the UK at the moment? A large chunk of the general electrician assessment cable calculations, safe disconnect and reconnect and direct online starters. How would you feel about that instead?

Hi jchoops, you're right, it is a complete minefield to get a licence here in aus and also requires a fair bit of luck to even get a job in the first place. In answer to your question, Futureskills require the certificates from city and guilds. From memory I don't think they required much more than that. Any other proof of your competence and how long you have been working as a sparky for is for the Australian government to decide how many points you should get based on your experience, which if you came over on a partner visa you shouldn't need to worry about. Sorry I can't give a more concrete description of what is needed exactly but it's over two years now since I gained my OTSR.

No, not as far as I'm aware, I did my LET and LEP with Epic ITB and there is no expiration date on the letter they sent out to me. You will need to gain your cablers licence though as part of the gap training.

Have you enrolled with a college or just got on and done your LEP? The minimum context gap training is 8-10 modules, the LET being one and the LEP being another. You'll have to enroll in a college and also have to find work as a spark in Australia to complete your eProfiling needed to gain a licence.

Hi Tracy, as far as I am aware, the OTSR replaced the ARTC. If your husband had his skills assessed by vetassess then he would have completed his OTSR as long as it was in the last few years. I am unaware if the OTSR was bought in before 2009 though I'm afraid. It sounds like the company is still looking for the old qualification and you should be able to explain that the new OTSR is the equivalent. http://www.tradesrecognitionaustralia.gov.au/news/pages/australian-recognised-trade-certificate.aspx Successful applicants in non-licensed trades are awarded an AQF qualification (generally a Certificate III) for their trade. Successful applicants in the licensed trades (Air conditioning and Refrigeration Mechanic, Electrician (General) and Electrician (Special Class)) receive an Offshore Technical Skills Record (OTSR.

AJ, that is correct, but to gain a skilled visa, you have to complete the OTSR to prove you are a competent electrician, which will allow you to apply for a supervised workers licence and enrol on the gap training on arrival in Australia. have explained the process once an OTSR has been achieved in a previous post.

Pm2112, the skilled visa will be by far the most expensive route for you to take but will allow you to work as an electrician while in Oz. It's not an easy or quick route. I have given an explanation on the previous page so have a read of that. Your only problem with coming on a skilled visa is you may struggle to hit the points criteria as you have not been working long enough after qualifying to gain any extra points. You would need to speak to a migration agent about that though, just keep it in mind.

Pozza, as far as I know futureskills run the preparation course, I sat mine in the UK before coming over but contact them, I'm sure they will. I would advise to do it, the exam isn't that hard once you have an idea of what is going to be in it. No problem for the advice, glad I could help someone else out. Mark, read my post above the one you made yesterday, it has an explanation of the process. Yes you need to contact a tafe college.

Hi Pozza, you are right, it is complicated. Firstly, did you come over on a skilled visa? If so I assume you will have completed your OTSR (Offshore Technical Skills Record)? If not then this is your first port of call. Try contacting Futureskills international, they are based in Queensland but hold assessments all round the country. I would advise booking onto a preparation course as well as it sounds like you have been out of the trade for a while and the scope of the course is quite large. It is not cheap so I would not want to fail it and have to resit. Secondly, contact your local college, I am not sure who that would be in Canberra, you need to book yourself onto the Minimum Context Gap Training which consists of two parts, the LEA, and an eProfile. An eProfile is similar to an NVQ in the UK, work based training and you have to have a job in the industry to be able to start. Basically, as you complete work, you fill out an online profile of all the sections required and your boss will sign off to confirm you have done the work. The LEA consists of three parts, the SWP (safe working practices), the LET (theory) and the LEP (practical assessment). The LEA is completed by all Australian apprentices after becoming qualified in order to gain their licences so it should be easy enough to find a college that runs the course. The SWP is covered by the OTSR so there is no need to complete that section, just the LET and LEA. Hope this his help and good luck.

Have any electricians in Victoria or some of the other states where it is a requirement, completed the Gap training required to gain an electrical licence? I'm looking for some inofmation on how it all works if anyone can help. Thanks.

Hi all, just after some advice if anyone can help. I moved to Australia 5 weeks ago today, have taken some time out to get myself sorted and have now got accommodation sorted so have turned my attention to finding longer term work. I am a qualified electrician from the UK, I used my training gain an OTSR to enable me to come over on a 189 skills visa and have now applied for my Victoria provisional electrical licence, I have also booked a white card course to complete on Friday. The problem I have found with getting an electrical job is that everyone wants an A licensed electrician or an apprentice. I need to work for a year to gain experience to allow me to gain my A licence, so how can I go about getting experience?. Has anyone else encountered this problem and how did you overcome it?. I have tried applying for apprentice jobs stating that I want the experience but I'm unsure if there is some financial benefit to having a genuine apprentice as there is in the UK which is putting companies off hiring. Thanks in advance, any help will be greatly appreciated. Simon

I'm sure when I got my skilled visa last year, I got points for my skill plus extra points for the amount of experience I had. If you could make the points up another way you should be ok with a 189 visa with minimal experience as long as ocupational therapist is on the skills list.

It will take different times depending on how bad you've torn it. I've just had surgery on mine as it would never repair on its own. I would definitely advise a trip to the phisio to find out how bad it is, could be rest, exercises or worst case surgery. Try not to lift anything over 1.5kg for a while and see how it is once the internal swelling has subsised if it is a recent injury.

Thanks rammygirl, yes, we sold our home in the UK so we will get the info about the sale and save a copy of the web advert.

Thanks, has put my mind at ease a bit. We will try some agents who may be a bit more flexible as to where the reference comes from and see if we can use our UK ones, that along with our short term rental reference we hope to get should see us alright. Thanks again.

Thanks Suzukiscottie, I have the details for the short term rental printed out so its good to know they will take that as rental history. The agents we were talking to claimed we'd need 3-4 references though which is what I'm worried about. I am going to contact the company we have rented from to confirm we are here but we have only done 6 days so far of a month so not sure how willing they will be to reference us.

Hi there, I have just moved to Melbourne from the UK along with my partner, we are currently renting in the city for the first month from our arrival date. We got here nearly a week ago and so far have sorted most things we can think of. This weekend we turned our attention to finding somewhere to live on a longer term basis. We have visited several estate agents in the areas that we have been looking at but it seems that we need references from people we know already in Australia. Something to do with the estate agents being able to contact our references to verify them. As we know no one in Australia as yet, (neither of us have jobs lined up as we are planning to have the first month or so as a kind of holiday / getting the know the city and surrounding areas) how do we go about getting a reference? I would love to hear from other people who may have experienced similar problems and how they over came them. We are having a hard enough time even reaching the required 100 point score to even be considered as although we have signed up for Medicare, we could be waiting almost a full month for our cards to arrive and even with that, our bank statements, passports, driving licences we are just under the required points total. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks