corgi

Hi is any air con plumbers moving back to UK because of red tape and low wages etc..

Or have I got it all wronge is it the best move you made?

I hope someone will reply
Julie

jad n rich

Theres been a lot of tradesmen go back recently, some were posters on this fourm but didnt actually post they were returning, its not an easy thing to announce. Are you going back or still deciding?

thomas and sarahjayne

We are planning to rerturn , hubby plumber by trade and gas fitter/servicer with british gas before we came, stuggling too much financially, low wages, red tape, etc etc. Alot of plumbers do make a good living here and can make it for them so please dont take our experience as a go by. We were much more secure back home, and have been disappointed and slightly demoralised by our full experience. We have heard some lumbers here go into the postal service or factories as make better salaries. It has been a big eye opener. Hubby does nt like the workmanship, standards or quality, etc and list goes on for us.

sorry to be negative, but we wish we had a little more honesty before we left to prepare us a bit better. Hope this helps. Wish you good luck and hope it works well for you.

sj

grimm

Hi,
We can sympathise with you totally.
We're going home after spending 18 months in Auckland because I'm pregnant and my husband's wage as a plumber/gas fitter sucks. There's too much red tape and I don't know how they can get away with paying such a low wage? He too is surprised how strict things are as the workmanship is way below the standards of back home.
We sold our home in Wales and now head back to absolutely nothing - no job offer yet and a baby on the way...
Good luck

thomas and sarahjayne

Sorry to hear it has not worked out for you either. We are in same situation, we sold house too in uk, and still living off savings and dwindling fast and would return skint. The full experience has caused more stress than the 5 yrs of planning and 2.5 yrs of applications and trying to get a visa
Good luck with the baby, and there is loads of success posts about people getting back on their feet after returning home.

sj x

corgi

First thank you for your reply.

We are still deciding?

Been finding some horrible stuff about low wage. Licence and course you have to go on.

And that you have to start from scratch again?
I just can not understand I thought this job was in demand?
How long have you been in OZ?
Are you happy?
Have you enough work?

I hope you will reply
Kind regards
Julie( very confused and upset at the moment)

thomas and sarahjayne

Julie, i've PM'd you

sj x

Tony1

Hi everyone,
I would also like to hear any news on heating and plumbing in the UK. I am an English plumber, living in Germany and will be returning home after 30 years to Kent.
All I can say to everyone who is considering whether it will get easier living abroad is that after all this time I have thrown my towel in the ring and said "sod it!!” I will never be able to think, act or speak the language as the Germans do.
I have had a good time here and most of the Germans are good people. They are just different. Time to go home and enjoy the humor again.

Hope I have not stepped on any toes.

Tony1

By the way,

as you can see from my abouve mail, I am in the process of getting ready to go home and start a small business.

If anyone would like to the info I have managed to collect so far then I would be happy to pass it on. Please send a PM and I will send it to you.
Kind regards
Tony1

Fleaflyfloflum

This is all very sad and i feel for you.

This is why i get so frustrated when posters who are not all positive about Australia are dismissed or ridiculed on the Aus forum. People with stories like yours should be able to post there to help others to make a balanced decision on whether to go or not. Sadly, for those of us who didnt find it so easy often we are considered weak, mentally ill or in some way lacking because it didnt work or wasnt what we wanted.

I truly hope you all go on to better things and wish you all the best.

northernbird

I am not sure they are all ridiculed because they say Australia isn't for them Flea. A number of posters who are vocal about their dislike of Australia lost all credibility a long time ago with their sweeping generalisations about the country and its inhabitants. Most logical people can see that it is hard when you miss family or are struggling financially.

chris96

Hi All,

I've been here now for four months odd, back in the uk i was on the service and maintenance side with a new 307 and good wage's, i came to Australia without the Artic certificates thinking (and under advice from agent) that i'd be able to get them easy enough.
I found employers were not willing to take me on without the licences, they rang me back 3 weeks odd later to see if i had them sorted but it's a long winded job to get them and slowly they lost interest...........

I managed to get a job in south Brisbane, in the interveiw i was promised the world, the sort of work i'd been doing in the uk, overtime rates, company car, holidays etc.

Once i started i found i was pretty much a labourer, hauling duckwork around and mounting fan coils for chilled water systems. Just a small amount of breakdown work came in.
I was paid near half the wage i was in the uk with no overtime rate's and lots of extra hr's. the "company car" was a old ute with 350000km which leaked water onto the drivers seat when it rained and when i told the "boss" he laughed!
The boss and guy's i worked with (apprentices) spoke to me and treated me like i was a bloody trainee!!!!!

While this was happening at work, we had a bit of misfortune with the girlfriends pregnancy, we were depressed after and we spoke about heading back to the uk one night, i posted my cv on the internet and i got loads of responses.

I was offered a job with trane as a chiller engineer in the midlands (where i'm from) really really good package also.
So we leave in just over a week now and as sad as i am i look forward to a job with a good reputable company.

So in my experiance, be prepared for a lot of messing around if you don't have your ARTIC certificates before you come, it never worked out for me BUT it does for many people, as it is i may try gain but next time i would have to have the artic in my hand and a good firm offer in writing from a reputable company.

Chris.

Nu-Shooz

Red tape was a total shock for me. I knew i had to do something to get a licence (air-con, refrigeration, electrical, ) but never knew how hard it would be. It has been a stressful 15 months with more hidden costs all the way. I could have easily given up and headed back home, i really did think 'stuff this' not worth it. But i like to succeed and now it is starting to pay off. Well, sort of

If i knew what i know now, i wouldn't have come. But i am here so i hope it all pays off.

truditjh

We spent just over a year in Auckland, hubby was advised that he would just need to contact the plumbers board to uplift his registration, after a 3.5hour grilling he was told he wasnt up to "the NZ standard" and would have to sit the course/exams etc., he had 4 different jobs in just over a year, the money was crap and like your hubby he found the standard of work bad, and they wanted him to work faster, but because he did things the "right way" he was alot slower. Anyway with wages only covering rent/food we made the decision to return to the UK. We came back 5 years ago, and know it was the right thing for us. There are days when we think of Titirangi, but know its not all its cracked up to be. The beach/bush is beautiful, but once you've seen it, you've seen it. When we returned he got a job very quickly and now he is in a better position work wise than he would have been had we not gone to NZ, if you see what I mean. Everything comes out in the wash. Good Luck to you though, we sold our house to move to NZ and consequently house prices had soared once we had returned, so we are still renting, but thats not that major in the scheme of things, more important to be happy.

iceman

I would say this as advice (as I also know Chris 96 and his situation well)

GET EVERYTHING IN ORDER BEFORE YOU COMMIT TO LEAVE

What I mean is that it is suicide to leave and move to the other side of the world before you know you can get the licences to work. From my point of view, I have actually found it reasonably easy, the hardest part for me was selling the house.

Once the TRA is done and you apply for the visa, it will give you time to sort out your affairs (Julie, I think you have either got your visa or must be close to getting it). I would have the house for sale while the visa is going through, but not fully commit to exchanging contracts until I knew 100% I was going.

As for the licensing, that is another issue. Once you have a visa, then you need to apply for an ARTC (Australian Recognised Trade Certificate). This is granted by TRA in Melbourne who willl do another assessment of skills. My first TRA was done in 16 days, but the ARTC took 8 weeks as it is ore in depth. I did the first TRA myself, but due to the fact that the ARTC is harder, I used a skills assessent specialist who is also a migration agent, and he was nothing short of magnificent from start to finish, including even having my licences and ARTC sent to his address in Perth, as they will not send them overseas. This is where Chris96 has suffered (I think I am right here mate) because of the agent. It is (in my opinion) fundamental to use a good agent, but one that has an in depth knowledge of TRA and skills assessing as this is the key to it all. John Nye was my agent and has vast experience in this. Even with the visa, you will not fare well unless the skills part is absolutely spot on. He did my ARTC after he did our visa and it sailed through with absolutely not a single fault. Had I have used the docuents I sent for the pre-migration TRA, I would have failed the ARTC, so he re did the all, and without his knowledge I would be in trouble.

I approached employers from the UK as well as in Australia, knowing that as I had the ARTC, the licences were achievable. Employers are not concerned if they know you have the ARTC skills recognition, and I was offered a number of jobs, ranging from $65,000 a year, to $107,000 a year with one of the big boys. They gave me 6 months to get the licensing done. The ARCTick (refrigerant licence) took 1 week, and most of that was in the post. The licence was granted and issued the same day the application was received. For Refrigeration and Air Conditioning guys, you need a restricted electrical licence as well. To get this you apply for a training permit from the electrical people, which is $57.50 from memory, and you need to do a 3 hour CPR course (about $53). Then the off the job modules need to be completed at a training organisation. QET in Queensland charge $1525 and the course is 9 days over three weeks. Once this is done, you write all the jobs you do in a logbook, and after about 3 months you get signed off by the training provider, who sends it all off to the licensing people and you get a licence.

Employers are usually fine as long as you can obtain the licence. If you can't forget it, unless you are willing to go back to the start and redo an apprenticeship, which is easier said than done. The point is-Don't leave without an Australian Recognised Trade Certificate-You will live to regret it.

It isn't all doom and gloom, but the key to success is to do your research, choose a good agent, and never assume anything.

Sorry this is a long post, but hopefully it will shed light on it from my own experience. I hope you don't ind me mentioning you Chris- Have a safe flight back to the UK, and I wish you all the luck in the world with Trane (excellent company). Keep in touch mate.

Good Luck to all of you
James