Gas engineer looking for advice

[Bartin]

Hello all, 

I’m a Gas Engineer from London and I’m looking to move to Sydney with my Aussie girlfriend next year. 
 

I really need some practical support on how to start looking for jobs and just understanding how my skills and qualifications are going to transfer here.

Will I be able to get a job? Will I have to re train? 
Is anyone else an ex British Gas employee that can offer support?

 

thank you in advance!

[Skani]

30 minutes ago, Bartin said:

Will I be able to get a job?

Will you be able to get a work visa?  Or do you have that already?

[Bartin]

Hey Skani, 

 

I could get a partner visa if need be. Just worried about my work prospects! Do you have any ideas?

[LouDYorkie]

I’d suggest looking at the type of job you want to do and see what certifications are required. The qualifications you have in the U.K. (eg GasSafe or apprentice trained plumber) may not directly translate to something like the Cert III GasFitter or a Plumber in NSW, so it is likely you would have to go to TAFE (think Trade college) in order to become certified. You should be able to get recognition for prior relevant learning and qualifications but the extent of this and therefore what remains to be done via a TAFE course or supervised working would be dependent on how well you can articulate/demonstrate this.

[LouDYorkie]

By the way, going to TAFE may not be as onerous as it first sounds....many employers allow their employees time for this, or if supervised working is required it is someone signing off the work you do so it’s not like you couldn’t work in the interim.

[Marisawright]

35 minutes ago, Bartin said:

Hey Skani, 

 

I could get a partner visa if need be. Just worried about my work prospects! Do you have any ideas?

What do you  mean, "if need be"?  You need some kind of visa before you can enter Australia to work. 

There's no point in looking for work until you've got the visa.  Then you can come to Australia and look for a job when you arrive.

There are employer-sponsored visas, but they are only to fill short-term vacancies and you go home at the end.   

If you are young enough, the quickest way to get to Australia would be a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) - you'd then have have the right to live in Australia for a year, and during that time you could collect solid evidence of your relationship and apply for a partner visa. You'd then be placed on a bridging visa while your partner visa is considered, which would allow you to stay and work in Australia until it's approved.

If you can't get a WHV, then your options are either 

(a) apply for a partner visa.  IF you meet the criteria and IF you do a good job of providing solid evidence of your relationship, you have a very good chance of getting this visa.  

(b) apply for a skilled visa in your own right. There is a point-scoring system for skilled visas.  You need 65 points to even be considered, BUT it's like a competition - the applicants with the highest scores get picked, and everyone else gets ignored.  It's hard to predict how many points you might need because it depends on how many high-scoring applicants there are at the time. So applying for a skilled visa is a pretty uncertain process

Regardless of which visa you go for, you need patience as the process can take a year.  That's why there's no point looking for a job, because no employer is going to wait that long for you to arrive.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Marisawright

[Bartin]

Thank you Marisa and LouDYorkie. Your advise is extremely helpful. 
 

Sorry, I haven’t quite worked out on my phone how to reply to your comments individually! 
 

Marisa, apologies if I came across as vague! Yes, indeed. I was planning on doing the working holiday visa initially and then going down partner visa route. I’m mindful that the partner visa can take up to 24 months to process (saw on the gov website) and so yes a bridging visa may be necessary. 
I understand that I would be easier to get a job once here however I wanted to be sure that there is something similar to my trade in the UK otherwise I would be considering a complete career chAnge which is daily daunting after being an experienced and well pAid gas engineer. 
 

Does anyone know what the equivalent to a ‘Gas engineer’ here? Or anyone that used to work for British gas and now works here ? 
Because of the climate I’m concerned t’ll be obsolete! 
 

Thanks again  

 

 

[LouDYorkie]

GasFitter and Plumber I believe are the two closest occupations to Gas Engineer and that’s why I suggested you look at them but I expect both will include elements that as a Gas Engineer you have not done or needed (and may never actually need but it’s a necessary part of the qualification in NSW). You would need to look at the gaps you have and what you need to do to fill them. For example: Gas in Australia is not all Natural Gas, LPG is common in places and so the question is, have you done the LPG part of Gas Safe (I think they say it’s for caravans and boats etc in the U.K. ) and may therefore get recognition for prior learning and can you demonstrate that you can work in KpA and not Bar,
Or for a plumbers licence should you choose to go that route, have you done drainage in the U.K.? It may not be part of a Gas Engineer requirement there but it’s a licensed plumber requirement in NSW as far as I know.
Do you need a restricted licence for what you want to do (less than 150 KpA) or a full licence? Are you expecting to supervise people, or have someone sign off on your work so only need a Tradesman plumbing licence?
Also bear in mind it’s different licensing if you choose to move interstate....it’s not a straight swap in some cases!