Antonycollis1986

hi new to this, currently live in uk and work as a gas service engineer for big company working on domestic plumbing and heating systems/ gas boilers/ fires etc. level 2 C&G in plumbing, level 3 C&G in gas maintenance. Me and my family fancy trying New Zealand but I have read some horror stories on plumbers from UK struggling to get into plumbing in New Zealand with the plumbing board, just wondering if anyone has made the move recently and had any joy.
Thankyou

BEVS

First, welcome to British Expats and this New Zealand forum.

Not sure what you mean by horror story, although I agree there is scaremongering out there. The process is what it is. Several occupations have a step by step process towards NZ registration.

I emigrated with my husband to New Zealand 11 years ago. He is a UK time served C&G advanced plumber and gas-fitter. He is now a PGDB certifying plumber and gasfitter having done the necessary to gain that this end.

At the moment there is no shortage of plumbers or gasfitters in New Zealand . The country has enough except for one area. Christchurch and Canterbury where plumbers are on that shortage list following the earthquakes.

This means that an NZ employer in that trade could offer you a job without having to check there is no NZ plumber /gasfitter or apprentice that could take up that work.

It is the NZ department of labour that decides which occupations are in shortage. Not the plumbing board or NZ immigration.

Yes. Both plumbing and gasfitting are each, one of those restricted skilled occupations that require the person to be of a standard with their overseas quals and work experience, to match the New Zealand standard and so to be eligible to become NZ registered.

If you gain an NZ job offer then you need to be licensed to do that work. The license is uplifted through the PGDB.
There are 3 levels of licensing.
1 - Provisional ( the one you would start with if you meet the standard)
2 - Registration and then
3 - Certifying.

The NZ standard and level required for an overseas plumber or gasfitter comes in at a NZQA level 4. NZQA = New Zealand Qualification Authority.
All the trades come in at this level . This is the level that NZ apprentices must reach in order to become eligible to become PGDB registered.

So. A level 4 is what you would be looking for. Mostly this is a C&G advanced / NVQ 3 I believe.

As far as I am aware the PGDB require that your first step is to apply for an IQA <--- click the link. However please do check that with the PGDB first .

Once you have the IQA, which needs to be a Level 4, then you will submit that , together with a police check and proof of your work experience to the PGDB. Remember, this is about being eligible to become NZ registered . In other words , to be NZ qualified. That is not the same as licensing .

Anyway , read about it all HERE <---- PGDB link.

It helps to understand that every country has it's own rules, regs and working practices, so just because someone is fully qualified in one country , it doesn't mean they know all and everything for another country. Hence the need to check.

With regard to gas heating systems, boilers and fires. They are very few and far between here as there is hardly any reticulated gas.
Homes are normally heated with heat pumps or wood burners. If someone has central heating as such it will be oil fired most likely.

Marzie

Quote

"With regard to gas heating systems, boilers and fires. They are very few and far between here as there is hardly any reticulated gas.
Homes are normally heated with heat pumps or wood burners. If someone has central heating as such it will be oil fired most likely".

Hardly any reticulated gas? Please. Ever heard of Taranaki?
A home we purchased way back in 1984 with oil fired central heating was converted to gas, here.. in the North Island!

BEVS

Oh dear. There was no need to be touching on the sarky really. If you know better about piped gas fired central heating & the like, then that is fine. No skin off my nose and it may help the OP somehow.

However as far as I am aware gas fired central heating and boilers is not common place in New Zealand as it is in the UK. The usual is a heat pump or wood burner because it is more cost effective.

Correct. Piped gas is only available to certain areas of the North Island.


from here <--- this linky which has a nifty map .

For the UK, gas is the source fuel for approx 85% of homes. That would be around 21 million homes.

The point being that the OP is in the UK and may not realise the differences regarding available gas supply in NZ.

Back to AnthonyCollis1986 & his query. Come back to me with your thoughts. What type of trade work were you thinking of?

MrsFychan

where we used to live we could never have gas central heating as it is known in the UK as the area had no piped gas, but believe it could be done in this property but because of the climate I would more likely to op for a heat pump as it will come with air con for the summer months. so it certainly is not the norm but is becoming more so as immigrants are requiring better standards of housing but it does come at a price as does double glazing which is generally the norm in the UK but again not here.

Antonycollis1986

Hi Thankyou for the welcome and the detailed reply very helpful, fell victim to some scaremongering I think, it's nice to hear a positive story. I had an idea that demand for gas services such as boilers/ fires would be a lot less over there. I guess I'm using the level 3 gas as a way of ticking boxes on paper, as maybe plumbing is in more demand, I have my plumbing papers up to level 2, I have a good bit of all round plumbing experience as I worked for myself for a couple of years and some smaller companies, doing all domestic plumbing, kitchen, bathroom, drainage. Can diversify tiling/ basic joinery. i guess it's ok me saying these things but don't know how it would go down trying to apply to come to the country. I apreciate that I would have to meet there standards as that's only fair. If you don't mind me asking how's your husband got on in this trade over there, has there been plenty of work, has he been happy. Sorry for waffling on 😊

Marzie

"The point being that the OP is in the UK and may not realise the differences regarding available gas supply in NZ."

He's probably done his homework on that score which is more than you did judging by your reply to him.

cappuccino

Why so rude Marzie??? Uncalled for

Antonycollis1986

Tried to write a reply a bit ago don't think it worked. Thankyou BEVS for welcoming me and Thankyou for your detailed reply it has some great info in it for what to do next. I did assume that the demand for gas services on boilers and fires would be a lot less over there, maybe my level 3 nvq will help towards a NZQA level 4. I have a level 2 NVQ in plumbing and quite a wide experience in domestic plumbing, worked for myself and smaller companies installing plumbing in kitchens and bathrooms and general household plumbing and drainage. I apreciate they will have different ways and qualifications over there and that's fair. Just depends what employers are looking for. maybe slightly concerned on the wages front in New Zealand for this kind of work if it would take long to get up to scratch with qualifications to earn good wages to support my family, again could have have read into the scaremongering side of things to much again 😳

scrubbedexpat094

There's really no need for that. I don't know of many houses round here that have a direct gas supply. The new build areas seem to have it but not the already established areas from my experience.

BEVS

At the moment there seems to be plenty of work. A few years ago there was quite a slow down but I think that was the same the world over. Now it has picked up again but not to the boom level it was when we emigrated 2004. The New Zealand Immigration shortage list reflects that really. Plumbers used to be on the list but were dropped some time ago. They now appear for only the Christchurch area which is one huge building site.

Yes. Ole MrBEVS is happy enough with his work environment . There again it is not me out there is it. He doesn't come in down in the dumps or moanin' and agroanin'. Of late there has been overtime and weekend work available if he wants it. The firm he works for is very flexible if he needs or wants unpaid leave.
It is four weeks paid hols a year , however you have to factor in the Xmas shutdown weeks. Normally two. That is family summer hols time for NZ as that is the long school hols. No use to us as no kids but great for families.
5 paid sick days a year + the bank holidays. 3 bereavement days.

MrBEVS is an NZ certifying tradesman so he could go self-employed if he wished or run his own business as we did in the UK. Thing is for us, we no longer want the hassle and prefer to have our free time be our free time...if you see what I mean. So, we manage on his wages . There again we do not have a mortgage.

MrBEVS mostly works on new build houses and some commercial work. There is the odd bit of maintenance I think he quite likes that, as he can see a property through from start to finish. Underfloor to final fit off.

I know he is happy with the blokes he works with and the young apprentice oiks that come through. They have 'shouts' after work sometimes. There is often BBQ breakfasts at the works or the plumbers merchants and the like. The bloke that runs the firm is hands on . All the firms and plumbers all know each other here. This is not a huge place.

We are of an age where I hope he will cut back on his hours soon. He works 40 hrs a week on average. I'd like us to move into semi-retirement mode. It is highly likely that the firm he works for will facilitate that as the trade firms here tend to be quite flexible. If you need unpaid leave, then they will allow for that & work around it. However if there is a rush job on, get that done. Scratch each other's backs I suppose.

As he needed to go see his elderly Mum in the UK last year , his firm organised that he could work through the Xmas shutdown . Great for us.

Yes. He is happy enough with his working life.

BEVS

As a plumber in New Zealand you would be plumbing. You would not be touching tiling or at least you should not be. Tilers do tiling. Joiners tend to be builders out here. You would not touch that. Drainlaying is a whole other trade so you would not be doing drainage. You would not be touching gasfitting either, unless you had a license to do so. Equally if you had a gasfitting license but not a plumbing license, you would not touch plumbing.

Once you were NZ PGDB registered you would look at an employed rate of $25 / $30 an hour , depending on the area of the country and the type of work.

NZ cost of living and house prices vary across the nation , just the same as for the UK, so what might be a good enough rate in one area of NZ would not be so in another. It also depends on if your partner/wife would work and if you have kids of course.