Curly

Hi I work for a small company of about 15 guys and we specialise in Commercial and Industrial Electrical Installations in Adelaide.  We are currently looking for sparkies if anyone is interested either qualified and already living in Adelaide or even if you are moving out and looking for work. I have been working with the company for 4 years now. I was a UK sparky when we moved out here and got my qualifications transferred so I could get a full license. I work in the office now as a project manager We have a massive year coming up with lots of big projects and need some extra staff. The company offers stable employment with plenty of overtime available if you wanted it. If interested drop me a reply and will send over the information for you to get in touch. Thanks

Hi Robert I have not completed it recently but about 7 years ago now but a lot of sparkies I have spoken to makes it sound like it hasn’t changed much. they put you in a booth similar to AM2 and do a basic DB with power point, light and some 2 way switches. you will then do a fault find which I did on a tubular heater but very basic for what needs checking just make sure you use the correct isolation. the last bit I did was on a plug and play board. You had to draw a diagram of how a stop start would work using the symbols they provide and then use the plug and play board to put it together. I struggled a little with one of the components on the wiring diagram but as long as they see you have basic knowledge they will help where they can. the test you do may have changed but it was multiple choice when I did mine with the equations on the paper to help you work them out. The guy who did mine was happy to help if needed too. I think they just want to see you are competent rather than trying to trip you up. Good luck and hope it all goes well

Hi Gene being an electrician for the amount of time you have will probably help in some way but like others have said they will probably need to see the full NVQ3 certification. To get a full license over here you need to carry out a small course to get up to speed with the Aussie regs. To get on the course though you need to have trade recognition. I did mine with Vetassess and had to carry out a small exam and work in a booth similar to the AM2 that you do at the end of your apprenticeship. before I could even get to that I had to fill out a file that included statements from past employers, letter from the college to say you attended and the full list of certificates. Also had to document work I was doing at the time of application. speak with Vetassess to see if it can be a similar pathway without the certification but to get an electrical license here you have to just through a few hoops first otherwise you can uld work as a TA which is not bad pay but annoying when you are doing the same work as someone who gets $10 an hour more than you

We have received our invitation letter today for the 21st March at the Hopgood theatre

Hi We are in Onkaparinga Council. We were approved in October but have not heard anything regarding a ceremony date yet. We were hoping for Jan 26 but I don’t think that will happen now. our neighbours got their approval through around 3 weeks before us and they have their ceremony locked in for the 26th but not sure if that will now change with the current Covid situation

Hi Chris Vetasses is pretty straight forward really. You will have a multiple choice question sheet to carry out with nothing too major on there from what I remember. When I did mine they also supply you with a sheet that has all the equations on there (I wish I had known that as I revised these). That was 6 years ago now though so not sure if that has changed. You will also do a skills test that had testing a tubular heater that also covered safe isolation, wiring a motor through motor control on a plug and play board and also a cubicle installation similar to the AM2 test in the UK but it’s very basic. I also did mine in the UK so not sure if there is many different processes. It is daunting but they are trying to help where they can so just take your time and try to relax and you should be fine especially if you have 10 years experience in the UK. Cheers Craig

If you can afford to live around Brighton I would definitely stay around there especially if you want a beach lifestyle for you and the kids. Brighton is beautiful especially in the summer evenings having an ice cream an a walk down the prom and Jetty. Brighton High school is a very sought after public school too. We have friends in the hills near Mount Barker and the 2019 bushfire just missed their property but they love it up there. Also have friends in Mount Barker but personally I wouldn’t want to live out there. I live in a new estate called Seaford Heights and have a decent size back yard and a large 4 bed house that I wouldn’t have been able to afford near the city. This may be too far out for some people too but I have a view of the ocean, 20 minute walk to Moana beach and a 5 minute Uber to the wineries what’s not to love schools are not as good out this way in terms of reputation but my daughter starts at Tatachilla next year which is a relatively reasonable price for a private school. I’m terms of meeting people I have met quite a few people from here and are good friends with a lot of them. Beau even joined us for a game of footy on Tuesday night which was good. only thing I would say in terms of settling in is take your time and give it a chance. Not everyone loves it and there will be plenty of hard times as it’s not easy especially when you have left family behind.

Hi Joshua You will get classed as a TA. This means you will be paid a lower wage but higher than a 4th year. It’s good you have already started in PEER as this will speed up the process and you should be able to do it quicker than 12 months if you have full time work. On a job point of view I would keep applying for jobs and look around to find some companies to drop in and introduce yourself face to face. Also try Red Appointments as even though I’m not looking they are constantly sending me messages. Hope that helps a little and are you looking to work in Service, Housing or commercial?

Hi Beau yes we are always on the lookout for players as if people can’t make it or injuries so definitely give us a shout when you land. Most of the guys on the team are Poms anyway so it will be a good chance to meet people. A couple of guys I met through here so it’s a good place to start. Hopefully your flights will be all good and we will see you in September

Hi Beau fingers crossed you will be able to get the flight and make your way over. Hopefully the quarantine will go quick for you too. yeah you are best looking around and seeing what fits you best. The rental market is pretty tough here at the moment so might need to apply for a few places to see if you can get something in place even if it’s just for 12 months until you can work out where you would like to be. I know that is hard with the schooling and we had a similar situation but it all falls into place. You will get a feel for it when your here

Hi We have a 5A side team that plays on Tuesday evening just for fun and some fitness. We are all over 30 and could do with some extra players if anyone is interested? Any age is welcome as no restrictions on this. we play in the Seaford rec centre and it’s a small league with around 10 teams. If anyone is interested just drop a message on this thread.

Hi sorry for jumping on late in this thread. I noticed you said that you are a production manager so based on that I would say most of your work would be around regency park area as this is a big industrial area. I wouldn’t recommend living around there though. Where you are looking now is a really good area. We have friends there and they like it and we also looked at building around Craigburn farm but was a little over budget in the end but a beautiful place. You would be close to Flinders hospital there too for your wife and only a 30 minute drive if you got a job in the North. we ended up building our house at Seaford Heights. It’s down South but up on a hill with a view of the ocean and only 5 minute drive from the beach. I work around Regency park and it’s a 45 minute drive from here but South Road will eventually get a new tunnel but it will be quite some time yet. I would just have a look around when you get here and have a feel for the places you are looking. Flagstaff and Blackwood are classed as the hills. The Southern suburbs are more beachy just whatever fits the lifestyle you are looking for really

Hi I’m an Electrician based in Adelaide. It’s a good idea to have a look around and get a feel for where you would like to end up. Like the previous post a WHV would be a good option. You could get work through agencies so you can have a look at how things are done here. You could only be classed as a TA as you wouldn’t have a license. In South Australia and Northern Territory I know that working in construction counts towards your hours for getting the following years visa. A good option for a Visa would be the 189. I come over on this and you are free to live and work anywhere in Aus. If you are seriously thinking about it and something you would like to do you will need to get an offshore technical skills record. This is an assessment on your skills and you would need this in place if you wanted to transfer your skills over. This is done by doing a stint in college to get up to speed with Aus regs. You will do a practical and paper assessment to qualify and once you have documented a certain amount of hours you will be able to apply for a full license. In Adelaide the demand for skilled trades is still high and I have never had any issue finding work. I can’t comment on the rest of the country. As a TA you will be looking at around $24-28 per hour and once you qualify you will be looking around $32-40 per hour depending on what area you want to work in. I have mainly worked in the commercial sector and have stayed away from the domestic side of things. Hope this helps a little

No sorry meant it in the sense of what work you were doing if you wanted to be an electrical TA without a restricted license. For instance if you were to work on a major construction site or a big infrastructure project you would probably need to hold a license to do any electrical work but if you were to work in other areas you would probably be ok without it. Just depends what you want to do when you get here. Best advice I could give would be to try and get the college work done ASAP and start filling out the practical work log as once you have a license it’s much easier to find work.

I work with a guy from Canada and he is now struggling to get his OTSR but that’s mainly because he had limited post apprentice experience before he moved out. if you can get it over there it would be much easier to transfer when you come out here. I know they run courses out of Melbourne but not sure on times etc. not sure how it works without the restricted license but you can definitely still work as a TA. Just have to be careful with what you want to do and what sites as they like to see licenced trades over here. I did my OTSR through a company called Vetassess. Just reach out to them and look at timings. I took me 3 months to get my skills approved but that was pretty quick and not sure what they are doing about skills tests there now because they normally fly someone over to carry out the practical test. You will be alright with the job work for the documents over here they just need to see really that you have been working in the electrical sector

Hi Chris not sure if it changes much from state to state but I did my Gap training in Adelaide. if you have your OTSR you can apply for a restricted license that will class you as a TA until you complete the training to get the Cert 3 required to get the full license. The gap training here is generally a 3 week block in college which runs you through the regs and sit a capstone exam at the end of it. Once the college work is done you will need to document around 6 months of work experience. If you are already working you might be able to use some of that to help cover the 6 months. it’s a pain to do but worth it in the end. good luck

Hi Dave i am also in Adelaide and just celebrated our 4 year anniversary of arriving. some other things may be what you do for a job etc. any skilled occupations you will more than likely have to get a license or maybe even do some training. like the other post says you can organise the bank from the uk and possibly apply for a TFN. You will need to go to the bank though to collect cards and sign all the documents. With Medicare you will need to go to a place called Centrelink to activate this so just try and plan a few of these in the first week or so as you can just chip away at them. only other advice would be to relax and enjoy for the first few weeks if you can. We are still able to travel around here and enjoy some of the attractions so have fun

Just a matter of opinion. People can bring anything they want and stating that big ticket items are more valuable as much more expensive here than back in the UK. For things like kettles, toasters etc if you are attached to them bring them with you but even if you buy a cheap one it gets you through until you decide you do want something different. with things like fridges, freezers, washers and dryers don’t forget you can still store things inside to send across as long as they are packed in tight

All electrical items from the UK will work in Australia as the Volts and Frequency is exactly the same. You will just need to change over the plugs. If the item is a large power load which requires more than 10A you would need to put a 15A plug on there instead but a lot of houses here do not have 15A as standard. For small appliances it is not worth bringing them out as you could get a cheap toaster, kettle, blender, etc from places like Target just to get you started. We brought a couple of TV’s, washing machine and dryer. We are glad we did as they are big ticket items and they are still working nearly 4 years on. The TV’s will need set top boxes to work here unless you can unlock them but again they are not expensive and will get you through times before you need to go out and buy more. You can get Foxtel or fetch TV if you wanted and will work fine through the HDMI cable. They are the biggest ones and I’m glad we brought them as it is expensive enough to get everything settled in place. If you do bring a fridge I would recommend leaving it a good few days after delivery to turn them on as they would have had a good journey with the gas so give it time to settle before you power it up again.

Congrats Lavers on the job definitely good to have a good work life balance especially with the summer coming soon.

Haha yeah they probably are. There eldest daughter has started in Mitcham high school and they have 2 other daughters still there. They live in near the tram lines in Plympton so it’s not too far from them. My daughter is in Richmond which is not too far away either. it’s a good spot and close enough to everything so I’m sure you will like it there. Hopefully your daughter settles in well which I’m sure she will.

Our friends daughters go to Plympton who are English too so might be nice when your daughter goes there. The eldest is 9 so a similar age to yours. Good to meet some friendly locals. There are some good parks around and even better when you see them out in the wild.

Nice mate it’s a pretty good area and yeah you will be close to everything there. What school have you decided on for your daughter? You will find most of the heavy industrial areas are North of the city but the roads are not too bad. Just gets pretty busy in rush hour.

Good work Lavers Glad it’s all falling into place. What area did you decide on in the end? Fingers crossed for the interview next week.

Hi Jody not sure if your husband is still looking but there are a coupon of jobs for TA’s on SEEK today. Might be an opportunity as some people who call themselves TA’s have never done electrical work