advise needed ... regarding mining dump trucks and courses??

[jodi73red]

Hi Everyone

 

just wanted to ask should my husband do a dump truck training course in the UK or in Australia? will the UK one be recognised?

thanks

jodi and wes.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

I have no idea on dump trucks but I would think the Oz course would carry more weight

[pablo]

Im a bricky so dont take what i say as 100%,BUT ive looked into heavy plant courses in Aus for a career change,i dont think a UK license carries much (if any) weight,plus the companies seem to want you to take a HR(heavy rigid)license so you can actually transport the plant to site yourself,thats how it works from what ive seen?,courses arent that dear btw

[Guest51810]

I dont think your able to use your UK ones over there, i think you have to do a few lessons and then your test again

[Guest51810]

I meant to add.. pablo's right - i dont think the test or lessons are that expensive. I tried to talk my OH out of doing his class 1 licence here because its pretty much wasted money but he wouldnt listen..

 

if your definitely going to oz then i'd wait and do it there.

 

best of luck

[VERYSTORMY]

I will add, that non of the mine sites i have worked on require HR licence. All have prefered to train as it is such a different environment than what you learn in training.

 

Also, be careful as to why you want to do it. It has a massive turnover of staff for a very good reason. It doesnt pay anything like as well as yuou may think - we pay $78k for two weeks on 1 week off with a week of nights and a week of days.

[Eera]

Knowing an awful lot of operators, I'd very much say the courses are a complete and utter waste of time; mine sites take on either experienced operators (which the course won't make him) or greenskins which they put through their own training schemes in which case it wouldn't be any real advantage. They have trainer/assessors on site who get paid an extra $20 an hour to do training so they prefer doing it on site. I'm yet to meet a single person who's found a job on the strength of one of those courses without some other skill.

 

In Australia, you need the competancy (which probably won't be RPL'd from the UK), if the course doesn't award either MNCO1041A (QLD specific) or RIIMPO311A - which a lot of them don't - then it's not actually a recognised qualification in the first place.

 

When you apply for positions in mines, they will want to know more about your external activities; I remember my OH was asked about what he's done for his community, how he's improved OHS in his workplace and that sort of thing. I've always found that getting experience in OHS holds more weight than dump truck courses.

 

I'd qualify the above by saying all the operators I know have gone through the Workpac/BMA or Rio Tinto direct entry. Whether contractors like Downer have a different opinion is something worth asking - I'm also assuming you mean big yellow CAT-type trucks rather than moxies or civil earthmoving plant, sorry if that's not right. I also don't mean to sound vitriolic, I'm seeing these courses pop up in a lot of places which offer the world and don't seem to actually do anything except relieve people of $5000.