craig25

Hi, I am currently living in the UK, I've been a bus driver for 10 years, I have thought about applying for bus driver jobs in Canada however I am looking for a change altogether. I have thought about getting a trade in plumbing or electrician. Do you think it's to late to start ?, Do companies have to employ you as an apprentice etc ? . I do have a passive income from investments so I could afford to live of a low wage for a few years

Revin Kevin

I would say get trained up in the UK and them look to go to Canada when you have a few years experience under your belt, I think it would be difficult to say the least to get hired as an apprentice over there. In the UK I used to employ apprentices well into there 30s so if your committed you should have no problem getting a placement. But be prepared to have to meet some of your training costs as apprentice funding dries up once your over 19. The other thing to think about is that a teenage apprentice who lives at home can easily manage on the pittance most apprentices receive, you will cost the company more to employ so they will expect more! On the plus side you have a driving licence and experience of working with a great deal of responsibility so likely will have no difficulty proving your worth. School leavers took 4 years to qualify at my company and mature ones maybe 2-3 years. I'm not sure how it works in Canada but you will need X thousand hours of relevant work experience and will need to pass their exams to get hired. Of course once you have got qualified in the UK and are earning the big ££££s you may just decide to stay!

christmasoompa

Do you qualify for a visa without a job offer? It's just that you can't get a LMIA/TWP for an apprentice role, so you'd need to be a qualified plumber if you did need a job offer first.

Bear in mind also that you need to be a able to prove a certain number of hours of work to be able to get your provincial registration in Canada, which is something like 7200 hours for a plumber I think (a search of the forum should give you more info and the precise figure). So you wouldn't be able to work as a plumber in Canada until you've worked for a while in the UK first and have the requisite experience.

So ideally, you'd score enough to get PR without needing a job offer, you could then go over to Canada and start an apprenticeship there to build up the required hours. If you don't score enough, then you'd be a few years away from being able to move to Canada as a plumber unfortunately.

HTH, good luck.

craig25

Thanks for your replies, I do have a pr however it would expire by the time I've qualified in the UK. I'm presuming then city and guilds and nvq are recognised in Canada ? .I think the only option in England would be full time college and after 2 to 3 years I would have to go and work as a plumber and gather work evidence for my nvq.

christmasoompa

Your previous threads all say you lost PR long ago (got it in 2010 but have never lived in Canada since), can you clarify? Have you since reapplied under another route? If so, when was that PR granted?

No, not really. That's why you have to prove hours of work experience, so that they can check would meet Canadian standards. You usually have to go and sit a Canadian exam too, once they've assessed your work experience. A forum search for 'Red Seal' or 'provincial certification' will give you full details.

HTH.

cheeky_monkey

yep agreed NVQ and City and Guilds are meaningless here unless you come across a fellow Brit in the construction industry like me who will know what they are