Anyone on here who has made the move and changed to completely different jobs and or taken on an apprenticeship.

No, but whats stopping you? If you can afford to drop wages etc and start at the shitty end of the job you may as well go for it! What would you want to do?? Pete

Mr P did as a mature bod.

He moved from re-insurance and is currently a 3rd year mechanical plumber. He is on appalling wages, but we factored this in when the career change was mooted. Aus govt are also offering incentives to people over 30 undertaking an apprenticeship (unfortunately Mr P is not eligible, as he is already an apprentice)

what would u like to do?

I am looking at doing the Carpenter apprenticeship, i have had a look online and found this in Nerang, I know there will be big changes with income but the missus will be working which will make it a bit easier and if the Gov are giving incentives to us Dinosaurs then all the better, everything helps
http://jobsearch.gov.au/Training/def...2&Siteid=18507

I hope you dont mind me asking but how appalling are the wages? I mean what percentage compared to what he is expected to take home once qualified.

what is it that you do the now?

i`m a plasterer to trade

gawd come up ere they are desperate for decent plasterers here

what does your wife do? 20 Q's lol

I never said i was decent seriously i have had a few brainstorms during the whole process of the visa and even now whether i should keep it up after 18 years but (i think) this is deffinately the right time to get away from it, i know if i go straight back it will be the same old routine ( get used to the $$ and too miserable to loose it and make the change) if i cant get an apprenticeship then i may have no choice but while there may be options available i`m going to use them

BTw the missus is a childcare worker, i divorced my x wife a while back

lol ok........well mate if ur up for it then give it a go. I know that there are government incentives for Mature Apprentices

if you get employed by a company which works on union sites, you get an almost normal wage. Otherwise you start on 7.50 ph and it goes up each year. Working in Safeway/Coles, you can get about 18 bucks an hour! No wonder they need incentives to attract apprentices,

I know you said you don't like plastering, but you can make lots of money in that trade here. Probably more than Carpentry. So what do you prefer, the good money, or a job you're happier with.??

I'm a carpenter and have recently taken on an apprentice, his pay as a first year apprentice here in WA is $354 per week.

I have too pay his super which is about $35 per week, plus workers comp approx $1300 per year.

I found the whole business of taking on an apprentice a bit tricky, there are lots of different things to sort and no-one seems to help that much. I had to do lots of searching myself for information.

For example none of the Apprenticeship organisations seemed to know what insurances I would need, they could'nt tell me if my apprentice needed a blue card, they didnt know about super annuation. My accountant sorted everything out for me.

Im quite amazed at the lack of help I was given in actually taking on an apprentice. You'd think there would be one place that sorted everthing but they dont. No wonder there is a skills shortage.

If your a bit older I would suggest teaming up with a carpenter and helping out on the cheap, learn as you go. A fair bloke should pay you around $200 per day if your reasonbly handy. You will never be asked to produce qualifications anyway. I've had lads help me out when I've been busy and I've paid them $150-$200 per day, its not rocket science.

as yet mate i aint had much luck myself finding out how to get in the door apart from a bit of a shocker today, I was told by one of the training companies up in the Gold Coast area that as i am over 30 and it would be a mature apprenticeship and they basically wouldnt touch me with a bargepole as the government rules state that someone my age must recieve a minium wage and wouldnt be viable for them to take me on and put me out on the sites as they would have to charge the contractors more for me than what they would for say like a 18-20 year old catch 22. i know that once i look at every avenue to do what i want and if it never happens to come off then it will be back to the Plastering i still do feel it for all other couples who have and want to make the move with maybe one of them with no qualifications and want to do something with their self and have a go at a trade themselves, all i can say to that is they are over 20 as i see it at this moment they will prob also be stuffed

to be honest mate i am not completely ignorant to they work you guys do, it was just one of these things that the company i worked for long term required of me, this is why i am looking into the apprenticeship as i really enjoyed the work.

Maybe someone out there will read the post and offer me a job

Any offers?