Lyx

Can't help sydney but in QLD you need to have provisional liciense for 12 month before you can get full licience and in this this time you go to college etc. you need full licience before you can go solo/subby.
don't stress after a year or so of flapping about oh, I've realised it not so bad - so long as you go into it with your eyes open.

smoke_n_mirrors

Hi Keelsh

You have a couple of hard parts, one getting here, then once your here getting licenced to work.

Once you get here your other half will need to be licenced to work, thats the hard bit, as what ever he does in the uk means almost nothing here, However at tafe they do RPL, Recognition of prior learning.

You / he can contact Pete Miles details above in one of my other replies, however my understanding is that they have dropped several units at north sydney tafe so he may now need to attend meadowbank tafe as well.
The RPL only takes a few months if he attends 4-5 days a week.
once he has his Cert III he can get a licence to work for someone else 4-6 weeks for the licence.

If he heads for Queensland they accept UK Qualifications & uk work experience thus he can get a full licence almost straight away. he will have to take a gas test, pass rate if 80% to get a gas licence, but i warn you the test is unlike the UK ACS test which has a 100% pass rate.
Not that its hard to do the test in oz on gas but some of the questions are not what you would expect.

but once he has a licence in QLD he can then get a licence anywhere in oz on mutual recognition http://www.licencerecognition.gov.au/
you can then move anywhere you live and work there.

NT is about teh quickest to process a licence and they accept UK stuff for licence (they take about a week) only one problem you have to work for someone on gas before you can get your full gas licence.

I have been advised that a few people (ex corgi / gas safe) are coming to OZ now as Gas Fitters and getting straight in, im unsure how true this is.

In short if you / or anyone else want to get into plumbing in oz expect to get messed about for a year or 3 after which you will be in the system then your there for ever.

James

johnknight001

sorry but that is inncorrect, you will not get a queensland plumbing licence for a good while, you will get a provisional licence and will have to attend tafe to complete 8 modules at a cost of approx $300 per module, each module is about 8 weeks long, good luck.

smoke_n_mirrors

Maybe i was not clear enough John (Sorry)

Option 1, arrive in NSW Do RPL with UK quals / vetas, get Cert III
now have to work for some one else for two years & get Cert 4 before being able to work for your self.
Option 2, Do RPL in NSW or anywhere, once having Cert III & Cert IV apply in Queensland for Licence rather then NSW as QLD accepts UK Work experience,
once full licence granted apply in what ever state they want to work in.
option 3, phone them (qld) to see if your uk quals are on their list of accepted quals for a licence.

if you have UK ACS in QLD they offer a conversion course mainly covers LPG if you do that and get 80% in the exam they grant you a licence for Gas
You can't use a mix of uk & oz quals it has to be one or the other.
Uk ACS allows you to take the short conversion course & exam
anything else you have to attend tafe to get required units of Cert III / Cert IV

The gas licence is granted from a different board to the plumbing & draining licences.

if your happy to work for someone else just goto where every you want to live and attend tafe and do the RPL for Cert III, Make sure you do the new cert III that has the BS numbers as they can be used anywhere in australia unlike the old numbers. Also not all the tafes do plumbing RPL, so make sure you dont live 4 hours away from one that you have at attend else it will be a killer to attend 4 days a week etc, once enrolled in tafe get a student card its give you cheap travel on trains busses etc, and cheap airfares with star travel.

There are several loop holes to getting a contractors plumbing licence if you know where to look / apply.

KeelsH

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your advice on my previous post.. It was very helpful!

I am now in Sydney and my partner is due to follow at the beginning of Sept - but today I had the shock of my life when I called Pete Miles and he said the plumbing recognition course costs the same as the full three-year Cert three and is a whopping $9,000 - despite it taking just 12 weeks to complete!

Does anyone know of anyway round this? The exchange rate is rubbish at the moment and this will wipe out all of our savings (and a bit more..)

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

karen and chris

intresting read,me and hubby are waiting to go to adelaide,he,s a plumber too.im a hairdresser.is that for all plumbers in oz or just sydney ,a bit daunting knowing it takes that long.

johnknight001

same in qld as well, i wouldnt worry to much, you just get on the rollarcoast and go with it, if you persist it will all come good, no point in worrying about it, if you really want the move here then you have to take it all in your stride, knock on enough doors here and you will get a job as well, i met a bloke the other day who moaned he coulnt get a job as a plumber and then said he had only applied for jobs he seen in the paper, ring every one and knock on their door, then ring them back, good luck, i hear adelaide is a alright place.

KeelsH

Hi Karen and Chris,

We've been in Sydney for a few months now and although my plumber-partner has found work, he's had to start as a year one apprentice because he doesn't have his cert three.

Originally, we planned for him to do the recognition training full-time but when he arrived in Sydney he was told this was no longer an option. It means he's now doing his course one night a week, which means it could take up to a year for him to qualify.

So despite running his own gas/plumbing business in the UK and teaching, my partner is being paid just $15 an hour! It is incredibly frustrating and degrading for him, but as living in Oz is our dream, it's a sacrifice we're prepared to make.

I don't want to rain on your parade too much - I just want you to be fully prepared. We did loads of research before we came and regularly emailed the course leader, but when we got here, we found out all the information which had been given to us was wrong.

We're lucky in that we're renting a cheap flat and my salary is enough to keep us going. I love my job and I'm loving Australia, but my partner - who is usually the most positive person I know - is finding it a lot harder.

Good luck!!

steve_kelly_and_boys

hi all you plumbers on here ( been using this forum for nearly 3 years now and NEVER knew this was here )

right i have a question , i have been given a provisional registration for victoria and am having to wait for an allocated slot for when i can sit the modules for the full registration and then i can go for my full licence ( waiting for plumbing victoria is a right pain as nobody bothers getting back to you )

what i would like to know from other people who have done the journey is

is it normal to get just the provisional rego in other states as i know it is pretty normal here in victoria

basically because i have been seriosly messed around here i am looking at contacting the other plumbing commisions in other states and seeing if they will give me a full registration rather than just the provisional as with the provisional you still have to attend a 2 day college test to be assessed

i will then convert the registration over to victoria or may even sit the licences in that state and then just convert the whole lot over

basically from what you have heard and seen for yourselves where is the easiest place to gain the plumbing registration ( not provisional as i already have that )

many thanks in advance for any suggestions

johnknight001

hi bud,
dont bother with qld, its a long slog here bud to get the full licence, not sure on nsw but i did here that its pretty quick in wa, but not sure, great website by the way.
john

steve_kelly_and_boys

Hi John

yeah good down here on the peninsula

what about you are you settled up there now , hows the work situation

the website is only a contact point for me for when i eventually have my full licence ( needs a lot of work doing but it will get done )

i was offered a provisional licence which means i still have to go and do the regos at college for all of the modules

went to do the mechanical services one at tafe and the practical was arc welding to a very high standard ( sorry never done that before so walked out )

have since gone in for training for other modules and basically they want you to do things that i did in my apprenticeship which i have never used since 20 years later , they ask you why you dont know how to do things and have told plenty of people that yes i learnt how to do it , it was 20 years ago and i have never done it since and once i have learnt how to do it i will never do it again so it is really pointless doing it in the first place

i have been given the runaround big time with the plumbing commission and they do not even bother to ring/ email you back with any queries ( very frustrating )

apart from that love it here and know that it will all work out in the end although it has crossed my mind to jack the plumbing in after 22 years of doing and actually enjoying my work

thats why i want to apply elsewhere and see if i get the straight registration rather than provisional and then i can go and do the full licence and trade on my own as i dont like working for other people , been a long time since i done that and am pretty set in my ways

anyway will speak soon hope you are still enjoying yourselves here