Trying to get your South African Wiremen's licence approved by Trade Recognition Australia

[Lavender]

My husband's second application to get a licence in Australia as a "Electric Fitter" has not been granted. He is now really so switched off. It is hard to understand how they do the assessment. In South Africa he did installations of weighbridges at different mills, tipplers to tip the train trucks coming into the mill, he actually did the whole project on his own and with all the electric and electronic parts of the project. He did wiring of huge switchboards, ordinary house wiring and many more !!!!!!!! Now he feels as if he is just a no good person! This is one thing that we did not expect to find in Aus. Try and get a job and you will find that it is not so easy as you thought. Yes and every time you do an application it costs $300!

[deroche]

I have heard it is very difficult to get your license in Queensland.

Another member told me he went to South Australia and then converted it in Queensland.

Hope you come right.

[AndreaL]

Hi Lavender

just remember that it is not a wiremans license but an electrical license, so perhaps he is focusing on the wiring aspect rather than the rest. I'm assuming that he is applying for his Australian recognised trade certificate through TRA. I would suggest you search this forum or google for how to get your Australian recognised trade certificate and you will find that some people have posted really valuable tips, particularly on the British Expats forum.

The ARTC application through TRA is the same no matter what part of Australia you are in, however once you have an ARTC you then have to apply for an electrical license via the state you live in( hopefully there will be a nationalised system by next year) andif you move to another state you just apply for mutual recognition.

I know of people who have supplied page upon page with their application, but it is really not necessary. TRA want you to describe how you go about particular electrical jobs from start to finish, including how you planned the job, what tools you used etc.

It's been years since hubby did his, but I do remember coming across a document which outlined the units of competence they were looking for, if I can find it again I will pass it on. good luck ad I hope he hangs in there.

I hope I have interpreted your post correctly in that he is applying for classification through TRA rather than applying for his electrical license which is through this site once he has an ARTC http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/fair-and-safe-work/electrical-safety/licensing/overseas-applicants

[VivienneAustralia2011]

Hi There ,

We have just recently done the TRA thing and we also got rejected the first time around for a few small errors. They did email us exactly what was wrong with our original application that so we were able to look at that and resend successfully the second time round . I did find that by then I had worked myself up into a bit of a state by then so i read it over a hundred times went through the papers a hundred times and then I took it to mum - who is much better at paperwork than me - and we sat with it for a full day and sent hubby and father in law out for the day and sorted through it again she also found some minor errors that we had to rectify then aswell. It was hugely frustrating and I must say I actually just left husband out of it (they don't like to fuss with these things the electricians as they know that what they do is good and why on earth would anyone question it ! ) But the truth is there are some fakes out there and the Ozzies have to filter them out . PM me if you want to know anything and i will try to help as much as I can , just remember if one paper is left out they will deny it so go through it carefully !!!!!! and get someone elese who is could at things like that to go through it again with you .

Good luck and don't give up !

[Lavender]

Thanks everyone! We will go through everything again.