jo_west

Hi Guys,

14 months since moving to australia, Gold Coast, and I am not doing too bad, but my partner who was doing the following trades in the UK

Gas Engineer
Kitchen Fitting (Which includes Carpenter, plumbing, electrics etc)
Carpenter
Plumber

And here for licensing reasons can only be license for a Gas Fitter, which if you know the Gold coast there is nothing around. He needs work, and now is considering going back to the UK, where he knows he can work fulltime for 3/4 months, but that just defeats the reasons for moving to Australia :-(.

Does anyone know of getting around this licensing, cause at the end of the day he can do those trades, but for one reason or another cannot get the license to do that here. What cracks me up is that Australia is crying out for trademens, but make it near on impossible to get the license.

Or does anyone know of any gas work on the gold coast or brisbane?

Besides that Australia is a lovely place to live, we just need a break for the
system a little.

Any Suggestions ???????????????

Jo

CHnJ

Sent you a PM

The Bloke

Unfortunately, legally, no licence-no work. Insurance won't cover any problems and you leave may yourself open to prosecution and fines if reported.

andicee

Unfortunately Jo, without the proper qualifications, whether or not he is able to do the work or not, he just shouldn't be doing this type of work. As a qualified sparky I have seen no end of kitchens fitted where the electrics and/or gas and/or plumbing have been to such a low standard that the whole lot has been condemned. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting for one minute that OH is a cowboy, but I say again; without the proper qualifications to work on electrics or gas he really shouldn't be touching either. Also, without the qualifications he has no way of issuing a proper test and inspection or installation certificate that will stand up in a court of law should anything go wrong!

Andy

cresta57

Yep it's more or less exactly as you've stated. The licencing criteria dictates that to actually gain a licence [in QLD] you must have worked at the job you wish to become licenced in for at least four out of the last 5 yrs.
It caused me a few problems when I applied as I'd been in a supervisory role for a couple of years still on the tools yet not often enough for an immediate licence.
Now I've been here a few years I think this system is a far better one than the U.K as the "gis a job mate I can do that" blokes are out on their ears. The idea of licencing also makes each trade fully accountable by law for any defective work for a number of years. QBSA do prosecute dodgy tradesmen so the system does work.
That said if the OP's O/H wanted to fly under the radar of the QBSA all that is necessary is for them to price each job they undertake at less than 1K including materials. It's perfectly legal as work under that amount does not have to be done by licenced trades [Plumbing and Electrics are exceptions and still have to be done by qualified licenced people irrespective of job cost]
We have a bloke up here that tiles without a licence he only does small jobs and prices them at less than 1k bigger jobs he splits into individual rooms.
A word of warning though; without a valid QBSA licence builders and contractors are not obliged to pay you a cent, most are aware of this and more unscrupulous ones often set an unlicensed bloke on and then not pay him knowing he has no legal recourse.

kkilnan

just a quick question, do you need a license if you are a carpenter in queensland? even if i have had my skills assesed by tra?

what about other states? does the same apply?

kevin

Wendy

http://jobguide.thegoodguides.com.au....cfm?jobid=720

At the bottom is a list of states and details of places and professional bodies you can contact for information regarding working in each state.

Dorothy

We've found the same thing with my husband. He's been working for over 20 years in his trade but the last 7 or 8 have been more supervisory than hands on. He's finding it hard to get RPL here in order to get licenced. Oh well, better than having unqualified people doing trade jobs.

cresta57

Yes if you want to work for yourself. You can work for someone else under their licence if you can find someone to take you on, a few chippies on here work for employers and aren't licenced.
The TRA is just for the purpose of verifying skills to migrate once you get here you have to jump through a few more hoops before you make it to fully licenced tradie.
Other states do differ in their approach to licencing.