Electrician moved to Australia questions about skilled working visa and VETASSESS

[NathanielC]

Afternoon,

My name is Nathaniel I'm 26 and just moved to the Gold Coast last week to be with my girlfriend who is an Australian native. Ive been an electrician back in England since i was 16 serving an apprenticeship then moved to being self employed then employed by a company for the last 3 and a half years. 

I have arrived on a working holiday visa and decided that I won't be leaving anytime soon and that it is best to start this process while i still have 12 months on my visa, I have the money to start the VETASSESS process and I'm presuming I will be having to apply for a skilled 189 working visa. I rang the licensing agency yesterday to see what would need to be done and they told me I'd need to complete the VETASSESS and then submit a form 11 work safe QLD.

I have been on the phone to link migration in southport Gold Coast to see if they can help with the skilled working visa and they'd like $165p/hr for their help. I have also been on the phone to VETASSESS to start the process and they have told me that i have to prove that I have been employed and working as an electrician for the past 4 years, So i have emailed all my previous employers asking for my working contracts as proof of employment. I am totally new to this and will be jumping into it feet first on my own with just a laptop and eagerness to get it done, any help would be greatly appreciated as to how I'm going to go about it as i feel a bit lost with it at the minute.

Once my previous employers have gotten back to me i will be starting the application process for VETASSESS and working my way forward from there, any help/information/websites/booklets/study books would be of great help and greatly appreciated, wish me luck!

Cheers

Nat

[VERYSTORMY]

The first tip, go through the vestasses requirements in detail to make sure you meet them. Some trades can have issues with their apprenticeship if they have only done nvq 2. As normally nvq 3 is minimum needed.

You may find (probably) that you will need to do one of the English exams such as ilets. There is lots of study material on line and do practice / revise. 

When you claim points for experience, you can only claim for post qualification experience. So, time during your apprecitiship doesn't count. 

[Guest]

There’s a company called future skills international in Brisbane they check your qualifications, I wasn’t fully qualified but had 7 years experience, I gave proof which was hard and mostly consisted of a few letter heads with “he worked here from” as the content, I passed without any hassle. Then there’s a exam, which if you search here you will find all the answres, then after that you’re allowed to work for a company to gather log book evidence for 6 months to sit the final exam. 

Hardest part of finding work on that shitty log book licence. 

[Guest]

Don’t use vestessa, they told me I had no way to pr because I didn’t have cert 3 and a apprenticeship, yet here I am 6 yrs on, future skills international are a different company and the proof of qualification you get is exactly the same. 

[Guest]

http://www.futureskillsinternational.com.au/

[Liam13]

I also went with future skills and had my practical test in Brisbane. Couldn’t fault the process with them. It’s was a timely process but Unlike vetassess you can generally always ask for the same person to speak to and have an update whereas vetassess are a massive company and your just a number 

[waydeross87]

I thought Vetassess was only body that did these assessments for migration. Thanks for this have just emailed future skillls. Can anyone go into detail about their testing? Whats they expect? @newbie