Electricians in Australia.

[Rassie]

Hi All.

I am an electrician, still in SA, Gauteng. My P.R. application is in it's final stages, and I will soon be looking for a job in the Perth area. Now this is not a job request. All I want, is if there are any electricians on this forum who have recently gone through the process of obtaining a job in Australia, please let me know about the steps you should take and if there are any pit falls that I should be aware of. Included is the process as I understand it. Please let me know if I am right or wrong.

First you do your skills assessment, BUT this is only for immigration purposes. You send all your qualifications, letters from your workplace of exactly what you do, on what equipment you have worked on, what tools you use, what training you have done. The more detail, the better. Bullet points are apparently better. It makes it easier for the person on the other side to read and assess. Then TRA do the assessment and let you know if you were successful. I've done all that and was successful. Now this does not allow you to work in Aus. Once you receive a visa - P.R. or Workers visa - that allow you to work in Aus, you still cannot work as an electrician. Now you have to do the whole TRA thing again, to get registered at the Australian Trade Recognition Authorety ( ATRA ) Still you cannot work as an electrician in Aus. Now only can you apply to do the electrical trade test, and you can only do it once you are in Australia.......

Now I ask with tears in my navy blue eyes, HOW DO YOU MAKE A LIVING IN AUS while working through all this red tape? If any one knows of a better, quicker way to do it, please let me know. I am sure I will find something, as a tool boy or something, to do while I wait to do my trade test. Regards, Rassie.

[Buck]

Hi Rassie

I am in the same boat as you. Also a qualified Electrician. We're also in the final stages of our 136 application and once we receive our visa, we want to relocate to Regional Western Australia. (Kalgoorlie).

I am surfing the web like no surfer can surf waves to try and make sense of this red tape. If you get any info, please PM me and I will do the same.

Buck

[Enrica]

Dear Rassie and Buck

You need to send you certificates etc to the Energy Safety Commission

Contact information

EnergySafety's offices are located as follows:

Cannington Office (Head Office) - from 4 September 2006

303 Sevenoaks Street (corner of Grose Avenue)

CANNINGTON, Western Australia 6107

Mailing Address: PO Box 135 Cannington WA 6987

General Enquiries:

Phone: 61 8 9422 5200

Facsimile: 61 8 9422 5244

E-mail: energysafety@docep.wa.gov.au

Licensing Enquiries:

Phone: 61 8 9422 5282

Facsimile: 61 8 9422 5222

E-mail: energylicensing@docep.wa.gov.au

You also need to redo your trade test. The TAFE does the courses you can attend partime or full time.

Some Electricians have been able to work under the companys licence for who they are employed whilst going thru the process of get all the licences in place.

Also depending what kind of work you do ie security etc you might need further licences.

All I can say is get used to the Aussie way- you need a licence for everything !!!!

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers

Enrica

[Guest colton]

Ok, my husband is a Electrical Engineer and has a couple of SA electricians working under him. This is how it has worked with his company;

1. Firstly you do your Trade Recognition Assessment in SA.

2. Once accepted and you are in Australia you apply for your Trade Recognition Certificate, you HAVE to be in Australia for this.

3. Once you get the TRC back, approx. 20 days, you apply for a log book and a temporary licence and then you work under supervision for approx. one year and then send away for a Queensland Electrical Licence.

4. You send this log book to TAFE and they decide whether you actually need to redo your trade test or not. So far haven't had anyone need to redo their ticket.

In the meantime you CAN work as a electrician. Companies realise what an issue it is to get your licence and so they DO employ you anyway, you just work under supervision till they can see you do know what you are doing. Sometimes at a reduced hourly rate till you prove yourself. They give you a year in which to get all the correct paperwork together, if you haven't done it in that time they obviously think you are hiding something or whatever and won't keep employing you.

Think logically, would the government grant you permanent residency because they need your skills but make it impossible for you to work so then you have to live on the welfare system to survive?

Come on over there are LOTS of jobs in the electrical fields.

P.S Unfortunately each state has their own requirements and you have to reaply each time you move states, just like your drivers licence.

[anchen]

Hi

I have already posted this document to the forum but I will do it again.

Please see the document attached. This is exactly what is needed to get licensed in the different states. It is very different form state to state.

(I know this was for people in Western Australia and on PR, but for incase there are people reading in different situations )

We are currently on our LSD here in Sydney.

Everyone we talk to here says the same thing. You can not work unsupervised without you license. The jobs that will let you work supervised doesn’t pay much and is not plentiful at all. For us it is really bad news We were hoping to come on a sponsorship to NSW but this will be impossible because it takes more than 2 years to get licensed in NSW and only then will a company be willing to sponsor.

As you will see from the document it is quite different from state to state. In Western Australia it is the easiest, so an option for us will be to try and get a sponsor in WA, and get the license over there.

Luckily there are Mutual Recognition arrangements between the different states so if we have a license in WA we can apply for the NSW one, The other option (in case anyone is interested) is to get your license in New Zealand because this is also accepted here in Oz.

Of course if you are here on PR it is a bit easier, al least you can do supervised work for bad pay for a while or do some alternative work in the mean time.

We have meetings with people again tomorrow. If I learn anything new I will post again.

Oh yes If anyone needs more info please PM me. I have loads of answers. We have considered everything form student visa's to apprenticeships and got all the (negative) answers

State_rules.xls

[Guest colton]

Anchen I presume you are looking for a job as an electrician seeing as you have done all this research. As stated in my post, we live in Queensland and this is how you get your Queensland Electrical Licence. I do know for a fact that it differs state to state, as you are obviously aware. At the moment my hubby's company is sponsoring another electrician over from SA, alot of companies do sponsor electrical guys, and this is the way they go about it. (It is one of the large companies with branches all over Australia)

Basically what you highlighted in your attachment is exactly what I said. As far as the salary goes I have to disagree with you, you can still earn a decent wage that would support a family on one income. A sponsored 457 Visa is how alot of electricians come over to Australia as there is a great shortage here, especially in Queensland.

I know you were not looking to settle in this area but maybe it is simpler in Queensland than in the other states?

I am only conveying what hubby has told me and he is working here in Queensland with a whole lot of South African electricians. By the way we got our Permanent Residency with his skill as an electrician, that's what they need on the MODL rather than an engineer, but applied for a job as an electrical engineer and got the 457 sponsored visa.

Rassie and Buck do not give up you can get a job here. Good luck.

Edited March 13, 2007 by colton

[australian]

Hi, does anyone have information on the refrigeration/air-con license for NSW, or have any ideas of where I could look for information on the internet. My husband is being sponsored by me, and has not had to do the Skills Assessment. He has his trade in South Africa.

Thanks

Robyn

[Rassie]

Many thanx to all of the replies ( especialy yours - Colton ) I feel much better now. We received PR in Feb. 2007, and will be in Aus. in June 2007. Do not have a job offer yet, but know that it will not be a problem. If any one out there is looking for a good electrician with Siemens PLC experiance, please let me know.....

Buck, it seems like we got our answers. Thanx again to every one who gave info.

Regards.

Rassie.

Ok, my husband is a Electrical Engineer and has a couple of SA electricians working under him. This is how it has worked with his company;

1. Firstly you do your Trade Recognition Assessment in SA.

2. Once accepted and you are in Australia you apply for your Trade Recognition Certificate, you HAVE to be in Australia for this.

3. Once you get the TRC back, approx. 20 days, you apply for a log book and a temporary licence and then you work under supervision for approx. one year and then send away for a Queensland Electrical Licence.

4. You send this log book to TAFE and they decide whether you actually need to redo your trade test or not. So far haven't had anyone need to redo their ticket.

In the meantime you CAN work as a electrician. Companies realise what an issue it is to get your licence and so they DO employ you anyway, you just work under supervision till they can see you do know what you are doing. Sometimes at a reduced hourly rate till you prove yourself. They give you a year in which to get all the correct paperwork together, if you haven't done it in that time they obviously think you are hiding something or whatever and won't keep employing you.

Think logically, would the government grant you permanent residency because they need your skills but make it impossible for you to work so then you have to live on the welfare system to survive?

Come on over there are LOTS of jobs in the electrical fields.

P.S Unfortunately each state has their own requirements and you have to reaply each time you move states, just like your drivers licence.

[Guest colton]

Rassie,

I cannot see you having a problem getting a job. Most electricians get a job within days of arriving. Hubby says not to worry, the companies he knows about will employ you, if you have done your TRA already, and then they help you to get the licence required. They aren't very keen if no TRA done because that can take months.

He says even the companies know how difficult it is and have systems set in place to get things moving quickly. Seems to me that it is easier to get your licence once you have a job rather than trying to get it on your own.

Keep us posted would like to see what happens.

[Bob]

Just clearing up a couple of points.

"TAFE" is a word that sprung up in the 1980s.

It means Technical And Further Education colleges.

On another note, a memorandum of understanding was signed in 1999 by all the States and Territories of Australia that trade and professional qualifications would be recognised throughout the States within Australia.

If you have a driving licence, trade or professional qualification . . . . in this case, an electrician's licence . . . . it is a formality in getting another licence to work and operate in another State.

My wife is a teacher and just has to stroll in to any other Education Dep't throughout Australia, produce her South Australian Teacher's Registration and another will be granted automatically.

Notably, it's also a formality with no further road testing to be required on swapping driver's licences over from one State to another. You just produce the licence and get another over the counter!

In 2001, New Zealand also signed the memorandum, making all professional and trade certificates, licences, etc. from Australia acceptable for New Zealand standards on application, and vice versa.

[anchen]

Thanks for your post Colton. I feel so discouraged by the replies from the guys over here that I'm losing hope! It is good to know that it is still possible to get a sponsor. Thanks for that.

It seems that Queensland or Western Australia is better options. Will start the search.

[Guest colton]

Thanks for your post Colton. I feel so discouraged by the replies from the guys over here that I'm losing hope! It is good to know that it is still possible to get a sponsor. Thanks for that.

It seems that Queensland or Western Australia is better options. Will start the search.

Anchen it is a whole different story when you are on a LSD. Companies are not really encouraging when they know you aren't living here yet. Remember a sponsored visa can cost the company at least $20 000, depending on what they offer, and so unless they desperately want YOU they aren't just going to offer a sponsored visa.

We had some people over for drinks last night, been here 2 years, also an electrician, and he also said couldn't find a job when he came over on a LSD but once landed with PR got a job within 2 days. He lives in Newcastle which is in New South Wales and he also reckons there are alot of electrical jobs down there. Basically he did similiar steps to get his licence and the company who employed him helped him get it. If you are here at the moment contact some companies in Newcastle, they are also having an electrical staff shortage.

It is alot of effort for the company to help get your licence for you and so they need to see you are doing your part first. Most guys get the sponsored visa, in hubby's company, who have already started their 136 application because alot of paperwork already been done and they can see the commitment. In other words they don't want someone to come over on companies expense and then decide no, they would prefer to go back. It has happened in the past apparantely.

Hubby said his company are looking for High Voltage electricians at the moment so if anyone has the experience PM me and I will give you more details.

Good Luck and keep hunting...

Edited March 14, 2007 by colton

[Francois]

Hi everybody. I am registered in South Africa as a Master installation electrician (Red card). Can anybody tell me if there is a similar qualification in Australia and if there is a demand for these possitions. Me and my wife (IT Consultant - Oracle) are currently considering our options and would like to get the process started as soon as possible. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you. Francois.

[christelle]

Hi Francois

They are in very high demand !!! .And this is one of the highest paid trades in oz .

They have a green card but that is issued for working on mine sites (underground )

regards ,christelle