goodo111

Im sure this forum hears the following all the time but i am looking for a little advice (or maybe a lot).

I currently work in a food production facility in the uk. The Company i work for is a leader in the market.
I started out by doing my apprenticeship in electrical maintenance, however my company required me to do multi-skilled maintenance. Sol i currently have:
NVQ 2 in multi skilled engineering
NVQ 3 --------"--------
HNC in electrical/electronic engineering.
All in all a advanced modern apprenticeship in electrical engineering.

I started with the company as a multi skilled maintenance technician, basically fault finding, maintaining, size changing, projects etc on food production machinery. Being multi-skilled i learned "both sides" if you like of this process. The machinery i worked on also included pneumatic and hydraulic components and part of my ONC and NVQ trained me on this.

I am still working with the same company (since i left school). But i have been working in the services department. This consists of operating and maintaining refrigeration equiptment (NH3), steam processing equiptment, air compressors, borehole water treatment, boiler water treatment etc etc. I currently hold my ammonia handling certificate.

So peeps my questions are :-
Should i emigrate to australia?
What opportunities would their be for me? (not being in electrical installation work)
Is it easy to get sponsored? (i understand that some companies offer accommodation arrangements etc to help you emigrate)
Would it financially benefit me?

Bearing in mind i am currently 23 years old should i bite the bullet and go for it? or should i settle where i am in the uk and live thinking what if...

Also what are the best places to live/work in australia.. may seem a bit of a open question but tell me of your preferences

Thanks for your replies
all the best from the not so sunny uk

p.s. sorry about the spelling

derren7

Hi there,
And welcome to the forum and BE.
Maybe you should consider getting yourself a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) which will give at least a year to spend in Oz. Although you'll find it nigh on impossible to find work in your field without a licence, you;ll at least get a taste of what Australia is like, if it feels right for you and seek out potential sponsorship opportunities, although, a sponsored visa will only give you a 4 year residency visa and if you are made redundant by the company that sponsors you then you only have a few weeks to secure employment with another company that is willing to sponsor you or you have to leave Australia.
If you want to migrate to Oz permanently, whether you go on a WHV, then your better off applying for a skilled independent (sub class 175) or a state sponsored (sub class 176) visa.
Should you emigrate to OZ? Only you know the answer to that.
Will you be financially better off? Probably not,but you never know what can happen and you won't be worse off.
Opportunities for maintenance sparks? Once your licenced up (lots of hoops to jump through, just trawl through this forum for more info on that) then you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding work.
Locations? Like I said, get yourself a WHV and travel around OZ for a year (possibly longer) and see which place feels right for you.
Regards Derren