Electricians

[Jsmull87]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what the demand is like for sparkles at the moment. Obviously i have gap training to consider so maybe trade assistant is where i need to be looking but open to advice. 

Spent recent years in UK working in Facilities Management as Electrician/ project manager within shopping centres and pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. I have college certs, testing cert, pat cert etc. Some experience with AC systems and F-gas cert. IPMA level D project management cert and AutoCAD cert although limited experience drawing.

If anyone has any tips such as CV formatting, recommendations of recruiters, companies they know are open to taking on new arrivals etc they will be greatly appreciated. I’m sure its a competitive market. Served my time house bashing/commercial new build so no issues getting my hands dirty.

[snifter]

Are you two people posting from the same account? Just another thread asks about teaching. 

[Jsmull87]

Yeah sorry. Wife is a teacher 

Edited August 18, 2018 by Jsmull87
add quote

[Curly]

Hi 

I'm an Electrician I have been here for nearly 2 years now. The construction market at the moment is booming so is quite a good time to arrive. 

I work for a construction and service company but I generally only work on commercial construction sites. 

I believe there are many jobs out there in the facilities and servicing industry but the problem you will find is they all want fully licensed electricians. 

When I arrived the construction industry was in a bit of a lull but managed to find a job for a service company but whilst I was there I continued looking for work. 

By a chance meeting on a train I got a list of companies and dropped in with my CV to them all and got a job out of it. 

I got my qualifications transferred across and got my full license and jobs are a lot easier to come by now. 

I think the best option for you would be to start as a TA for a company but I would still try the facilities companies if that's what you would like to get into. 

There are companies who would be prepared to take you on as a TA because they get electricians doing the work for cheaper labour. 

There are plenty of agencies out here too that are always advertising as some of the major sites use the agencies so they are not tied in to contracts. 

How far along with the process are you? 

Have you looked at doing the course to get your qualifications transferred across? 

What sort of visa are you coming on? 

Sorry for all the questions but there are other things I can tell you and point you in the right direction once I know. 

It is a pain doing all the transfer of qualifications but I would try and start it as quickly as you can and you will hopefully be able to get into the job that you are after. 

Cheers

[Jsmull87]

Hi Curly,

Really appreciate the reply. I’ve got the OSTR even though the wife is the main applicant. Made sense to get the extra points as I would have to do it any way to get a license. 

Will be heading over on a 189 PR visa if all goes to plan. We submitted the visa application in April so if immitracker is somewhere near we should have a case officer assigned very soon. Everything is uploaded now as we did medicals this week which is why we’re now looking at our next steps.

im quite open to going back into construction. The only thing that got me into servicing was the drop in work over winter in UK and weather. Adelaide should be . 

Its nice to hear someone’s story with a positive vibe. 

Cheers

James 

[Curly]

Hi James

That is a good start having your OTSR because you can’t do the qualifications transfer without it. If you think you are not far away from getting your visas I would start to enquiring about the college courses available because they generally involve attending college for 1-3 weeks. The 2 main colleges are PEER and Training Prospects. I did mine with TP and I only needed to do 1 week but as me and another Pom were the first to carry it out there it was quite intense so they were looking at maybe making it 2 weeks instead. PEER required 3 weeks. 

Once you have that in place you will then need to document 6 months worth of work. It sounds more than it actually is just a pain that you need to go through it to get your licence. 

When you first apply you will get a restricted licence which you then transfer to an A class when you get your cert III. That’s the only issue with the service side of things here you have to fill out a Certificate of compliance (COC) with pretty much every job you do and these can only be filled out with a full licence. 

The construction industry doesn’t seem to have much of a lull here as even in the winter it doesn’t really restrict the work. Like I said though if you would like to stay in services keep applying and it may be that some of there work requires two men so you work along side them and still be able to fill in your work log. 

Have you looked into a company called Skills SA? They are a company that work with the government to help people migrating. I found them by chance when I was researching in the uk and got in contact with them. They paid all my fees for the college work that needed completing and will help fund with any other costs that will help get what you need. 

I set up an interview for when I first arrived and they just go through all your documentation to make sure for all eligibility. The place you get the licence from is next door so good to kill two birds with one stone. 

Hopefully this will help you with everything and point you in the right direction. 

When you get here you can give me a shout and meet up for a beer. I will give you a list of companies to try and it’s best to actually turn up at the offices and see if you can talk to someone directly because it’s easier to explain your circumstances.

Have you researched any places where you are looking to live or set up a starting point? 

Cheers

[Jsmull87]

I will look into all those organisations you listed over the weekend. I wouldn’t have known there was so much help available if it weren’t for you and these forums. There’s a company in U.K. charging megabucks to do the gap training which I was tempted to sign up to but if it’s only a few weeks long over there it will be better.

The beer sounds good. I definitely owe you a couple for all the info. I’ve been doing all the visa application and wife’s skills stuff myself that until now hadn’t thought about what I needed to do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Curly]

Glad I could help and it's all not too bad just seems a lot but will all click into place when you get here. 

Yeah definitely don't do it over there if it's expensive especially as you will get help over here. They run the courses quite often too so you should get on one pretty quickly. 

Let me know if you need any more info and I look forward to a few beers in the sunshine  

[Jsmull87]

On 8/22/2018 at 8:35 AM, Curly said:

Hi James

That is a good start having your OTSR because you can’t do the qualifications transfer without it. If you think you are not far away from getting your visas I would start to enquiring about the college courses available because they generally involve attending college for 1-3 weeks. The 2 main colleges are PEER and Training Prospects. I did mine with TP and I only needed to do 1 week but as me and another Pom were the first to carry it out there it was quite intense so they were looking at maybe making it 2 weeks instead. PEER required 3 weeks. 

Once you have that in place you will then need to document 6 months worth of work. It sounds more than it actually is just a pain that you need to go through it to get your licence. 

When you first apply you will get a restricted licence which you then transfer to an A class when you get your cert III. That’s the only issue with the service side of things here you have to fill out a Certificate of compliance (COC) with pretty much every job you do and these can only be filled out with a full licence. 

The construction industry doesn’t seem to have much of a lull here as even in the winter it doesn’t really restrict the work. Like I said though if you would like to stay in services keep applying and it may be that some of there work requires two men so you work along side them and still be able to fill in your work log. 

Have you looked into a company called Skills SA? They are a company that work with the government to help people migrating. I found them by chance when I was researching in the uk and got in contact with them. They paid all my fees for the college work that needed completing and will help fund with any other costs that will help get what you need. 

I set up an interview for when I first arrived and they just go through all your documentation to make sure for all eligibility. The place you get the licence from is next door so good to kill two birds with one stone. 

Hopefully this will help you with everything and point you in the right direction. 

When you get here you can give me a shout and meet up for a beer. I will give you a list of companies to try and it’s best to actually turn up at the offices and see if you can talk to someone directly because it’s easier to explain your circumstances.

Have you researched any places where you are looking to live or set up a starting point? 

Cheers

Hi Mate,

Finally booked our flights for beginning of June and starting to research ready. Are Skills SA still going? When I google them it comes up with South Africa instead. Some funding would be a big help if it’s available so definitely want to look into it.

[Curly]

Hi mate

Yeah I’m sure skills SA are still around I think this is the site http://www.skills.sa.gov.au/

Thats great news that you have booked your flights and coming that time of year will give you time to settle before the summer. 

Let me know how you get on with that link and anything else you might need. 

Cheers

[Jsmull87]

2 hours ago, Curly said:

Hi mate

Yeah I’m sure skills SA are still around I think this is the site http://www.skills.sa.gov.au/

Thats great news that you have booked your flights and coming that time of year will give you time to settle before the summer. 

Let me know how you get on with that link and anything else you might need. 

Cheers

Ah ok. Part of the work ready program by the look of it. Big help. 

Cheers

ill be in touch nearer the time about that beer I owe you

[Curly]

Yeah no worries mate. Good luck with it all and I would try and get it set up as soon as you come out. You can then enroll on a college course to get that out of the way. 

Look forward to that beer mate

[Jsmull87]

When is a good time to start applying for jobs etc. I will be arriving first week in June and was wondering if I should start introducing myself to employers advertising roles similar to what I would be looking for.

Does anybody know of any RTOs for gap training? I spoke to PEER and the only one available is October. Earlier would be better if I am to convince employers to take a chance on me.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Curly]

Hi Mate 

I wouldn’t look into the job sites too much until you’re a bit closer to moving out. It might give you an idea though of companies out there. 

Are you still looking at the servicing sector? 

Try a college called training Prospects. That’s who I used to do my gap training but not sure if they are still doing it. You could always try TAFE also but I think they were stopping running those courses. I’m quite surprised that PEER are not running any others until October. You could also try ATEC but they may just deal with apprenticeships. 

Did you get in touch with Skills SA. Bear in mind you will need to speak with them before you enroll on any course to be able to get the funding. 

Hope it helps

[Jsmull87]

Hi mate,

I’ve contacted all those you listed and only PEER have confirmed they are running the course. I think they bought out training prospects also.

I have been talking to skilled migration services who are now the department who help with funding. Probably skills sa renamed. I know someone who say they provisionally registered with a view to getting funding upon arrival. I’m getting twitchy now as they have said places are nearly gone for October.

I quite fancy getting back into.contracting initially with a view to maybe learning some solar. Always wanted to do it over here but the bubble burst very quickly when they pulled the feed in tariff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Curly]

If you can’t find anyone else running the course I would provisionally book yourself in.

Yeah there are plenty of jobs out there in construction at the moment and Solar would be a good thing to get into. They are running incentives here at the moment for battery storage too so that side is pretty good and maybe you could install it for me when we get our house built haha. 

I know it’s a pain to start work and then have to do the college work but just log the work you are doing and it will still count towards your 6 months logging. 

[GaryL]

Curly, would you mind replying to me on email. I would be grateful for a 5 minute chat with you if possible. jeekom@gmail.com.

Sorry for placing this in this post but for some reason I can't message Curly.

[Richard burns]

 I'm a electrician which works for a housing association in the uk and I'm thinking about emigrating to Adelaide. I know you must do the OTSR in the uk which allows you to apply for unskilled licence which will probably allow you to work  as a TA, what's the next step after that step by step and cost of each stage?

whats the salary for a TA?

how hard is to get a job?

any help would be much appreciate.

RIch

 

 

 

[Curly]

Hi 

Good to hear you have done the 1st step in getting your OTSR. 

While you are still in the UK get in contact with some colleges and also the funding program that will help pay for your gap training when you arrive. If you look at the previous threads you should get a lot of the information you need. 

When you sign up for the gap training you can get that all funded as long as you are on the correct visa for their requirements. 

You will need to pay for a restricted license which when I met with JSmull recently I think he said it now costs around $500. Once you have gained a Cert 3 from your gap training you can then upgrade to an A Class license which I think is another $100. 

You can do other courses like Low voltage rescue and resus and also the EWP which will all help and you could also apply for a CITB card which will cover a lot of the cost on these too. 

You will definitely need to get a White Card so you can work on sites which is basically a H&S course but most places require this. 

It can be pretty expensive to start with so just make sure you allow for that. 

In regards to wage as a TA you will be looking between $25-$30 per hr depending on who you work for and if you are casual or full time. 

Once you qualify you should be looking at an extra $10 per hr. 

Work is pretty good out here right now with plenty going on so if you are willing to put the time in you could find something pretty quickly. 

Hope this helps to start thinking about what you need to do. 

Cheers

[Richard burns]

Thanks for the reply buddy. Fingers crossed it all falls into place when we touch down