Electrical jobs

Hi I've just discovered this forum and would like some advice if anyone has it. Me and my family have now received our permenant residency visa and we are looking to move in the next few months if we can sell our house here. I am an electrician with over 10 years experience. My roles have mainly been on commercial construction jobs but I do have experience with industrial and domestic installation and also maintenance. I would like to get a job in the commercial construction sector again but all the job sites I look at don't seem to offer much in this field. Are all the electricians who work on commercial installations sub contractors or is there companies who mainly deal in this area? I'm trying to get as much info as possible to help me when I arrive. I look forward to any responses. Thanks

I don't want to be bearer of bad news mate... But being an electrician in Adelaide at the moment isn't the greatest... I think before you start looking for work consider looking at your licence requirements like enrolling at Peer. Preparation for Logbook that take you 6 months minimum. I don't want to sound cynical but I've left the state because of it and I'm an electrician who's been through Hell and back in Adelaide.

Sorry to hear about you're experience in Adelaide. I have started my research into my temporary license and also looking into my further studies and realise that it will take 6-12 months to complete all of the documentation required. Where are you living now? Did you have a job in Adelaide or did you have to give up before you got started?

Guys,

I run my own electrical business and know the pitfalls and hardships that await you as I too had to go through all the hoops to get my electrical license and then my contractors license.

What you will need when you get here is to get your qualifications recognised by the Aussies. I can only speak of the UK sparkies in this reply.

You need to book yourself on the Electrical MACGT course at Peer Veet. This is an intensive course and covers in the first week all your OHS stuff and your Electrical rescue with CPR (which is now compulsory). Once complete and passed you will then move onto the wiring rules part. This is again an intensive course spread out over 7 to 8 days over a 2 week period culminating in 3 exams, (2 written and one test and inspection with fault finding). It really is just like going back to college and if you listen and pay attention it really shouldn't be too hard to get through. There were 13 in my class and only one person had to try again, most of us got over 90% so all good.

Now that was the easy part, here come the hard part.

To actually get Peer to sign you off you need to complete the "GAP" training. This is the part where you have to somehow manage to persuade an electrical company to give you a job. Once you have this job you need to document EVERYTHING you do in detail. The more detail you have the quicker you can get signed off. If you are only doing house bashing then you will be waiting at least a year, yes you read that right, a whole year waiting for them to sign you off. If you manage to get into a company that covers a variety of work in domestic and commercial with some single and 3-phase work, a bit of motors, some control cabling (air conditioning is a good one) then you can in theory get signed off in as little as 3 months (but this is difficult and not the norm).

Once they are happy and your log book has been back and forth between you and Peer a couple of times they will then sign you off and you get your magic certificate. Then the joys of looking for that job start.

You do not need your restricted license to get onto the course at Peer but you will need it to get a job with someone.

Here is the link to Peer's website with the dates for the next courses on it. http://www.peer.com.au/Portals/0/201...%2013.7.16.pdf

This year they are in October and December and seem to be run every couple of months but only one course per month.

The cost of the course plus all the books (you may be able to borrow these) is about $2,000. Some funding is available from Skills for All which is based in the city. You need to book an appointment to go see them, take your Vetasses and your passport, if there is anything else they will tell you.

Once you have all of this then look me up. http://www.beebop.com.au

Good luck everyone who reads this.