Oz Electrical License

johnnyfruitcake

Any one manage to get one?

Whats the best way to go about it and is there any way to get the ball rolling from home, any books I can get, websites etc.

Thanks

aido79

First of all you need to get your trade recognised by TRA. To do this you will need to use an Australian address so if you have any friends or family in Australia that would be useful.
All states have seperate licences and different ways to get them. Where do you intend to work?
Peer in Adelaide do a course through correspondence. They will post the workbook needed to any address including Ireland. Once you've done this workbook you can then land in Adelaide and do a 2 day course and you will have a South Australian licence which can be transferred to any other state.
If you are intending to land in Perth you can do a 2 week course to get the licence. I would advise you to book this well in advance as it could take months to get a place on it if you wait til you land to book it. TAFE in Balga and Balcatta in Perth are 2 places that do this course.
NSW have a course similar to the Peer course in Adelaide but don't know much about it.
If you do it in Queensland then you will have to find a company that is willing to take you on for 6 months and fill out a logbook for that time..you don't really want to do it that way to be honest.

have a look at this website for more info:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=97

Hope this helps. I went through it all 2 years ago. Its a pain in the ass but worth it in the end!

sonic.trip

aido79 wrote: »

First of all you need to get your trade recognised by TRA. To do this you will need to use an Australian address so if you have any friends or family in Australia that would be useful.
All states have seperate licences and different ways to get them. Where do you intend to work?
Peer in Adelaide do a course through correspondence. They will post the workbook needed to any address including Ireland. Once you've done this workbook you can then land in Adelaide and do a 2 day course and you will have a South Australian licence which can be transferred to any other state.
If you are intending to land in Perth you can do a 2 week course to get the licence. I would advise you to book this well in advance as it could take months to get a place on it if you wait til you land to book it. TAFE in Balga and Balcatta in Perth are 2 places that do this course.
NSW have a course similar to the Peer course in Adelaide but don't know much about it.
If you do it in Queensland then you will have to find a company that is willing to take you on for 6 months and fill out a logbook for that time..you don't really want to do it that way to be honest.

have a look at this website for more info:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=97

Hope this helps. I went through it all 2 years ago. Its a pain in the ass but worth it in the end!

any idea what you need to do to work in melbourne mate?

this really is a load of crap, they should reconise irish and british electrians. thought they were stuck for electricians in oz!

byrner51

im in the same boat ill be arrriving in australia in november plan on travelling for 2 months then looking for an electrical job either in sydney or melbourne.

however a guy out of my old job rang one of his friends who is there a few months now working without doing that course he said some jobs will take you on without so its not totally neccesary to do it.

this is just hear say anyone with more experience feel free to shed some light on it thanks.

sonic.trip

yeah anybody on the ground over there, it would be great if you could shed more light on this!

I'm in a serious predicament, got my WHV the other day and plan to head over to Melbourne in January. I'm an electrician with 7+ years experience, I have a degree in electrical design engineering and just done my honours degree in elec services and energy management.

There are no jobs here in any of them and don't even have any experience in the design side of things since graduating 2 years ago. I would really like to get into the energy management side of things even to get experience, but the question is, are they going to take on somebody with no experience on a WHV.

I suppose if it doesn;t happen then i could go the electrician route, but then it gets me in exactly the same position when i get back to ireland---NO EXPERIENCE, because these feckers are not taking on any junior positons,

load of ****e, the government should be doing more to incentivise junior positions.

anybody in melbourne in the engineering side of things, maybe they could shed some light also?

cheers

The Aussie

sonic.trip wrote: »

this really is a load of crap, they should reconise irish and british electrians. thought they were stuck for electricians in oz!

I fail to see why it is a load of crap. They might want skilled workers, not some unskilled result of the building boom, god knows there is enough of them still bluffing their way through life here in Cork. (hows that for a mini rant:D)

Besides if paperwork seems to hard, give up now. Australians love their paperwork, you can send off years of paperwork and still blott all to show for it

mandrake04

I am not an electrician but I had to do the NREL and that was 2 nights a week for 14 weeks to get the certificate, then I had to get a letter from my employer and apply to fair trading for the Restricted licence. I was working here for over 18 months without it but only require it when doing an installation on my own or working in QLD


I have a few friends who are sparks on WHV and working for a mob installing solar panels, they don't have an Electrical Licence but their boss does so they are basically viewed as skilled labour or apprentice under supervision.

aido79

The Aussie wrote: »

I fail to see why it is a load of crap. They might want skilled workers, not some unskilled result of the building boom, god knows there is enough of them still bluffing their way through life here in Cork. (hows that for a mini rant:D)

Besides if paperwork seems to hard, give up now. Australians love their paperwork, you can send off years of paperwork and still blott all to show for it

I completely agree with this. When I first got here I thought it was a load of crap too but my opinion has now changed. If the same system had been used in Ireland when things were good then it would have stopped some of the shoddy foreign workers from taking jobs from qualified sparks.

If you can't be bothered doing the exam to get the licence then you can either work as a trade assistant and get paid less or consider a career change.

sonic.trip

aido79 wrote: »

I completely agree with this. When I first got here I thought it was a load of crap too but my opinion has now changed. If the same system had been used in Ireland when things were good then it would have stopped some of the shoddy foreign workers from taking jobs from qualified sparks.

If you can't be bothered doing the exam to get the licence then you can either work as a trade assistant and get paid less or consider a career change.

my point is, if you have got all your paperwork and passed all the exams here, you are more than qualified to work as an electrician anywhere in the world. fair enough you may have to do a course for a day or two to get used to there system, but having to to a night course for twenty weeks or so is crazy

mandrake04

sonic.trip wrote: »

my point is, if you have got all your paperwork and passed all the exams here, you are more than qualified to work as an electrician anywhere in the world. fair enough you may have to do a course for a day or two to get used to there system, but having to to a night course for twenty weeks or so is crazy

Well I suppose they have to be fair it wouldn't matter if you passed your exams in Kenya or Kildare, your fellow Aussie electrician's are protecting their own industry, people & property and rightfully so.

Its Australia ....their country and their rules.

aido79

sonic.trip wrote: »

my point is, if you have got all your paperwork and passed all the exams here, you are more than qualified to work as an electrician anywhere in the world. fair enough you may have to do a course for a day or two to get used to there system, but having to to a night course for twenty weeks or so is crazy

you can do a 2 day course in Adelaide or Sydney to get the licence. There are also 2 weeks courses. The longest course is the 10 week part-time course. The whole idea of getting the licence is to make sure you know their regulations. How else are you going to prove to them that you know them without doing an exam?
It really does stop dodgy sparks from getting jobs here. One of my mates done the course and there was an Indian guy in the class who couldn't wire a 2-way switch and was putting neutrals in MCB's.
Although when you do see the standard of work here you will wonder why they have regulations at all.

sonic.trip

aido79 wrote: »

you can do a 2 day course in Adelaide or Sydney to get the licence. There are also 2 weeks courses. The longest course is the 10 week part-time course. The whole idea of getting the licence is to make sure you know their regulations. How else are you going to prove to them that you know them without doing an exam?
It really does stop dodgy sparks from getting jobs here. One of my mates done the course and there was an Indian guy in the class who couldn't wire a 2-way switch and was putting neutrals in MCB's.
Although when you do see the standard of work here you will wonder why they have regulations at all.

I suppose 2 days is not too bad. thats crazy about the indian guy

I have heard stories that there standards are not nearly as high as ours anyway. thats way i was saying seems pointless, although a day or 2 to get aquainted with the rules and regs isnt the worst if your planning on working there for the year!

aido, are you working or have worked as a sparks over in australia? im heading to melbourne in january, do you know can you apply for the licence here before you go over?

aido79

I'm working in Perth for the last 2 years. Read my first post on how to go about getting the licence. Its not just as easy as turning up for a 2 day course. Try and get as much sorted as you can before you leave Ireland. I've yet to meet an electrician who had the licence within 3 or 4 months of getting here. If you only plan on staying for a year then it may noy be worth your while getting it.

ted1

Sonic rather than blaming other people, why not go out on your own ? I work in Energy managment and our company has grown from 3 people two and a half years ago to having 12 people in Dublin and another 12 people in an office over in long island. We're also looking at opening an office in the UK fairly soon.

sonic.trip

ted1 wrote: »

Sonic rather than blaming other people, why not go out on your own ? I work in Energy managment and our company has grown from 3 people two and a half years ago to having 12 people in Dublin and another 12 people in an office over in long island. We're also looking at opening an office in the UK fairly soon.

I was considering it over here, but wouldnt know where to start getting jobs, plus i want some experience in energy audits etc first.

I'm really hoping to get something in the area in melbourne. if that fails, go on the tools for a couple of months, all going well.

what kind of work are you doing with the company ted1?

ted1

we do energy managment, so we install meters mainly electrical but also steam, water, nitrogen, enviormental meters, and so on.

we bring these back to a datlogger adn from there back to our software which logs the data every 15 minutes.

the customer can then view they energy comsuption over cetain periods, this allows them to find trends, verify bills (extremly useful when bills are over 1million a month) and to better manage their consumption.

sonic.trip

received this email a while back, might be useful information for some electricians heading to victoria:



Good morning,
We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail and wish to advise the following as an Applicant from overseas:-
* On your arrival in Victoria, Australia you will be required to make contact with:-
Trades Recognition Australia
Department of Industrial Relations
8th Floor, Customs House
414 Latrobe Street
Melbourne
Tel: (03) 9954 2537
In order to make an appointment to have your overseas qualifications assessed.
* If you are assessed as an Electrical Fitter - you will be entitled to apply for a Supervised Worker's Licence Class 'L'. In order to gain this Licence the following will be required:-
* Complete a Safe Working Practice (SWP) Assessment - there is a short course at a TAFE College that prepares you for this Assessment (this is optional and up to your discretion). The Safe Working Practice Assessment is conducted at either NMIT or EPIC Training Tel:
(03) 9654 1299 or you can visit their website: www.epicitb.com for further information.
* Complete an Application Form which you can download from our website:
http://www.esv.vic.gov.au/ForElectricityProfessionals/LicensingandRegistration/SupervisedWorkersLicence/tabid/197/Default.aspx - Related Content
* Provide photocopy of your TRA Certificate and Safe Working Practice Assessment.
* Fee payable of $199.30 (AUD) (Supervised Worker's Licence is for a period of 3 years - which is not renewable).
* As a holder of a Supervised Worker's Licence Class 'L' you will be entitled to carry out electrical installation work under effective supervision of a licensed electrician throughout Victoria.
* In order for you to gain an Electrician's Licence 'A' Grade - you will be required to work under your Supervised Worker's Licence Class 'L' for a period of 12 months in order to gain 12 months or more of electrical wiring installation work experience and pass the full LEA Assessment.
* If you are assessed as an Electrical Mechanic - you will be entitled to apply for an Electrician's Licence 'A' Grade. In order to gain this Licence the following will be required:-
* Complete a full Licensed Electrical Mechanics (LEA) Assessment - there is a short course at a TAFE College that prepares you for this Assessment (this is optional and up to your discretion).
* The Licensed Electrical Mechanics (LEA) Assessment is made up of three components which are as follows:
Safe Working Practice Assessment (SWP)
Theory (LET)
Practical (LEP)
which is conducted at either NMIT or EPIC Training Tel: (03) 9654 1299 or you can visit their website: www.epicitb.com for further information.
* Complete an Application Form which you can download from our website:
http://www.esv.vic.gov.au/ForElectricityProfessionals/LicensingandRegistration/ElectriciansLicence/tabid/196/Default.aspx - Related Content
* Provide photocopy of your TRA Certificate as an Electrical Mechanic and Licensed Electrical Mechanics (LEA) Assessment.
* Fee payable of $332.20 (AUD) (Electrician's 'A' Grade Licence is for a period of 5 years - which is renewable).
* As a holder of an Electrician's Licence 'A' Grade you will be entitled to carry out electrical installation work throughout Victoria, but you will not be authorised to contract for profit or reward as this is a separate Registration.
If you have any further enquiries, please do not hesitate in contacting our Licensing Department.
Regards
Licensing Department
Energy Safe Victoria
Level 3, Building 2
4 Riverside Quay
SOUTHBANK VIC 3006
Freecall Tel No: 1800 815 721
Fax: (03) 9686 2197
E-Mail: licensing@esv.vic.gov.au
Website: www.esv.vic.gov.au