Hello there - after some help, advice and thoughts.

[SouthShields88]

Hello lads and lasses, a 19 year old here born and bred in the North East of England.

Basically I am currently on a University course at the University of Sunderland but have decided that the future I had planned in the UK is not for me and I am now 100% against settling in the UK at this age. Maybe in the future after (hopefully) many happy years living in Australia I may move back to the UK but that is for another time.

I understand that this is a big decision to make which is why I am preparing now for the move in many ways. I am planning to embark on a 4 year Electrical Installation Apprenticeship here in the UK which will leave me as a qualified electrician. I plan on using these 4 years to save, plan and prepare for the move to Australia which will occur over the Summer of 2012.

Now there are several questions I need to ask about this:

- Will I be ok finding an Electrician job in Australia?
- Will my Electrician wages be enough to sustain my standard of life in Australia?
- Where in Australia should I move to? At the moment I feel that Melbourne and Perth are my most likely destinations.

Any other help would be appreciated, hopefully I will be here for a few years preparing myself physically, mentally and financially for the move and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks very much

[Jules]

Hi there and welcome.

After scouring many websites for jobs for my hubby in Oz, there are loads of Electricians wanted over there and from what I can see the wages are on a par to this country. Obviously it all depends on experience and how good you are at your job. Take a look at some of the sites and you can judge for yourself, it gives you a good base line to work from. You will have to pass the TRA assessment and get a blue card out there to work.
If you can add to your installation course anywhere along the line it will benefit you in the long run.

The plus side is that you have plenty of time to save and gather all the info you need.

Good luck to you!

[luke]

SouthShields,

Just thought I would drop a line. I'm 20 and hundred percent sure my home country isnt for me either. About to head over there in December and check out what academic possibilitis they are in the various law faculties. Good luck with your search!

[once a jolly swagman]

Well, there is a fair bit of work around but remember that some are still trying to con employees to fill out the "AWA" or Australian Worker's Agreement" introduced under the 'coalition of the willing's' "I will do anything including mass murdering Arabs to be a baron in the new world order and call myself "Australia" 's John Howard. This was knocked out by the new Labour Government so keep an eye out...There are industrial award systems here but to be paid "award" money you have to be desperate, a very average electrician or on probation...and I wouldn't accept 3 months probation on lousy money. The basic wage is about $520.00 as I recall but few electricians would earn under $20/hour and overtime exists also. From a 'bodyhire company' I was often earning around $2000 perweek but you are treated as piece workers by the employers quite often and they will bad mouth you if you have principles...better" head down mouth shut, do the job and go". The calls for overseas electricians is not because we do not have enough sparkies...but because many employers want younger workers...think they work harder and have less principles...Some employers here are "smartie" scumbags so use your wits. Joining a union is fair and wise BUT if you join a union they will claim money from you for years after you think just not paying means you don't have to pay anymore..like any normal organisation.

I'd look in Western Australia as it and Queensland are the boomers. There seems to be work around for guys with mining experience too....and UK certainly has those. Auto electricians with experience seem to be in demand.

The second reason for saying Australia is desperate for electricians is that there is a great advantage to employers in keeping wages down through the AWA's and pretending we cannot supply the workers needed and thus openly promoting the using of asian labour and korean labour in particular and also mid eurpoean..., though the latter are not government promoted as for some political reason we have moved away from Europe and into Asia...

These are disadvantaged countries in wages terms for whom Australia seems like Nirvana. I don't know about Asians and Koreans doing short term tiling courses and so on but I do know that whilst Aussies were traditionally the best trained tradesmen on the planet that the mid and East Europeans I have worked -with are extremely competent and very widely experienced...pity they become wire jerkers here instead of having to use their experience but...Voila!!...Unfortunatey their own countrymen tend to keep them to themselves, away from other local workers at lunch and so they often get screwed...also (and it has its pluses) many Koreans are involved with religious groups and pay rent and sandwich money (not a small amount) but then, they seem to be happy enough.A lot of workers on B'hai temple were deported a couple of years ago and had been paid pathetically low sums. Just keep these things in mind...don't make an issue of it here. A pommie I worked with on a new Bunnings site was sent to another job because of his strong union stance to the boss, just in the lunch room and speaking about principles and nothing more......the boss not nice person....but he fell on his feet as that job, unbeknown to them was much closer to his home...an unforseen advantage for a union member ..LOL!!

So...you will probably have to do a year's familiarity course...do it with enthusiasm...you may learn important details. AS 3000 is the book of regulations here (in part) and is about as decipherable as "Black Mischief". One wonder how 'experts' can be so unclear but that's the book..Some of it is on the Internet. Important parts are regarding earthing and testing.

The job finder called "seek" holds a lot of job information (as in employment) but you can just go in and type say "Electricians wanted Australia". Now in the past you can only work on your visa length. Some employers would tell lies about the scottish or London or whatever electrician being "essential" and "unreplaceable, though we have tried" because these guys worked for jam and were reasonably competent. ...if you want to stay longer than Visa then get the facts before you leave and if possible get employed before you leave...but have a contract that will last at least your visa duration and include probation. Your system IS different from our system though similr voltages so be prepared to learn it as quickly as possible....for just one example we don't have fused plug tops.

I have noticed that the brits and scots in particular can be quite pugnacious....soccer hooligans are only one example. Few things are worse than a pissed aussie who is a racist at heart and a disgruntled trouble maker looking for a blue...except a Scot ot a Brit...when "on the turps". Alf Garnett moved here on retiring!!...I laugh uproariously...does that tell us anything..?
Sadly groups of pissy and pugnacious expats tend to beat up guys in expat groups when they do it....and have no compunction about putting in the boot and doing serious damage.It wasn't the Australian way, I can assure you and is frowned -upon. Expats have many things to live down including ducking back home rather than paying debts or car damage costs so when you do come here...try to bring the best virutes you can with you and remember that nothing really matters a toss including bleeding heat nationalism or who wins the soccer...that's all bull**** stuff for introverts who want to be apart of a crowd and then feel justified in becoming aggro. Just bear in mind the dispassionate way Aussies are about the rugby for example!!...and remember Kylie Minogue and Dame Edna are both stirling examples of Australian, ahem...womanhood.

Finally, as you probably know England suffered a brain drain in 1789 onwards, exporting its finest minds to Australia. These people turned Australia into a country overshadowing England in a hundred years. We welcome anyone but the "whinging pomme"..or the one who knows everything...is not so welcomed. We periodically read in the women's magazines about "why I was disenchanted with Australia and returned home a broke and broken man/woman/child/family...Brit tells all". I spen a lot of time in Europe and really love England, and that's what I talk about..not about paying $21.50 for fish and chips....now this is said for a point. According to my inquiries in England, a typical electrician might get a base 600 quid a week. A typical Aussie a base of $600 a week...and so it goes on in the world...the NWO charges much the same in most countries, numerically. If I work in the UK and save say 200 quid a week, that's about $500 Aussie..if you save $200 Aussie perweek you are saving about 75 quid so think carefully about what you want to achieve by leaving UK and Ireland and Scotland and Wales to come here. If you return you will probably be culturally improved (ahem!) but may not be advantaged financially. This is why I suggest you look for well paid work with overtime....$20 to 28 per hour plus superannuation should be achievable readily. Building sites have allowances and typically overtime..

You may need to invest the money here..buy a flat or a house if here long enough or some good shares if you have the brain for it...or some small antiques you can definitely make a profit from on returning home. Remeber any property purchase brings a stamp duty payment..so consider all that if doing it as an investment.

If here a short time it probably isn't so important. I'd think about saving my Aussie dollars and bringing a thousand or two UK quids to buy a good second hand car (if you want one, they are a bottomless money pit and there is reasonable public transport here) as cars may be dearer here and you conversion rate will be a benefit in the early days. Bank with ING or heritage Bank S26 account where you get something in interest. Forget bank cards...work your life around cash. It isn't cold here so often so don't bring many clothes..buy them here and jeans and shirts and Yakka work boots can be bought cheaply at K-Mart and Target...and even more cheaply in some Melbourne stores...I buy jeans for $16 in Melbourne which outlast $70 Levis 10 times over. If you want to keep your blood circulating though, keep away from sparrow legged chginse sox!!..as a tradesman..look for the wider type of
hiking sox..I find those ankle chokers quite a nuisance when working and leave one scratching the area for a while after returning home and taking them off.

Remember too that this is a huge country compared with Britain and you will have lots of great places to visit...not much history but a lot of beauty, lots of pubs with entertainment on a Saturday afternoon and some with excellent meals. The truckies are as bad as Italians in France and as you venture down the highway and come to a reduction in lanes you'll find that's where these self proclaimed "best drivers on the road" might over take you (unlawfully/dangrously) causing you to brake or go off the road...It's a lot hillier here than in England so don't encourage these dangerous morons by slowing them down when they accellerate to get up the next hill....If brains were dynamite most wouldn't have enough to blow their hatsoff...but they can still cause you a lot of stress and grief.

You'll buy fish and chips here for $4.50 to $7.00 which is about 2 to 3 quid!!...so you'll find eating even if numerically similar to be actually cheaper...but then always remember that whatever you save here, when you go back, will become about a third of its value in Britain, but your prices will ne numerically similar to ours...so your Aussie dollar will buy you less in UK...get my drift.

Finally stay away from our girlfriends...you may catch something you can't protect yourself from........

See how we care for you up and coming vege-mites.......??

Cheers Tony

[once a jolly swagman]

It sounds as though you have had some relationship breakup/down to consider going from Uni to a trade although a trade should not be looked down on as less than a degree in quite a range of areas. ...Don't just give up university without dilligent and unemotive thought...Overseas university qualifications impress the intellectual hierarchy...looks great on their recommendaions when they need an excuse to drop some one local....It is true though that tradesmen well employed can earn far more money than a common engineer...and stay a lot fitter.

Your electricians wages, will well support you in Australia. If returning home later bring to mind I said before about exchange rates.....and don't go working for places like certain boat builders in thewhere you cannot (they say) negotiate rates and where overtime is not paid. Seek money and be available for overtime...but EARN the money and work will be more consistent.

Save it and put your private money also into Superannuation..you could put a couple of hundred a week into super yourself here, if single, and still live well...and you can contribute your portion if and when you please. Your employers compulsory contribution on top of your wages witill be between 9 and 13% of your gross wage...but, do make sure it goes in at least every three months...

If you can get 10,000 per year into good super for 20 years you'll retire ok, for 40 years..very very very well...Average here is about 10% or 12% from the better ones like C Bus and that means a doubling of the annualised Capital every 7 years.

So, you have one block of $10K in year one..after 7 years it is $20K, after 14 years $40K after 21 years $80K, after 28 years (you are now going 50) $160,000 at say 57, $320000 and at 65 more than $640000 ...if you never had put in another dollar!!...so multiply that by other reducing period blocks of 10,000 per year...and you are a very wealthy retiree and you will still have your house paid off ok and brought up a family...

Just pretend the money doesn't exist. Just take the 10,000 from year 2 ...it will be roughly $620,000...now you are an retired millionnaire...and how many other blocks of 10K went in over your 35 years of working life?..granted reducing each block over time to the point where the one at age 57 at that 10% compound rate will return only 20,000 plus some from the 6th,5th 4th 2nd and last year...and the taxation is only 15% on superannuation.

We have a good super system...when you come here, learn it and use it wisely...and of that 10,000 I spoke of, if you limited yourself to only that...your employer would have contributed..on current rates of say just $1000 per week wages.....about $4500 so your contribution would be about 100 per week..were you to contribute 200 instead...that final sum for the fist block would be $800,000.

I took this up again to say, study PLC's and get experience with them as there is a demand for Industrial electricians...study data and communications as well and if possible get licences...good money there too in private work and makes you "rounded" which helps the boss decide to use you. Australian electricans have become victims of the NWO's mediocrity suite...education level is pathetic compared with the past and many employers resent paying apprentices "to learn what we can teach you"...in other words narrowing them down to being useful to him but with no future. Sadly "Industry" has become important in education whereas we should have the best unprejudiced education with modules available for specialist work.

If you are going to buy tools here...may be cheaper than flying yours over...bring quids and convert them...then the tools will seem cheaper...and you can buy EU stamped tools quite cheaply...but don't bother replacing armatures and stators..they cost three times the price of the drill. Betetr tools are available sometimes on ebay...I refer particularly to De Walt...some bargains turn up,there even though it has become a retial dressed as wholesale paradise.

I last month bought two 18V extended life batteries recently for $160 for the two of them delivered...(at the stores...$150 each!) Just bring your favorite hand tools and say 200 or 300 quid to buy whatever else you may need.

An electricians legally demandable "toolset" is something also defined by the unions and Giovernment..there are tools you are expected to have but that does not include large hammer drills or jackhammers but you are expected to have afair selection of hand tools and a battery drill and an electric drilling machine up to say 3/8" chuck.

Safety glasses and helmets are supposed to be provided but you can buy them here amd it is wise to keep your own just in case, and gloves too....

Safety workboots ARE compulsory..

Do a first aid/ recussitation course just before leaving and bring the certicficate...it is a requirement and so is doing your "blue card" here...an Industrial Safety course usually costing around $80, one evening, concentrated and with an exam at the end.

As I said...keep tabs on the Internet and the "Seek" for example to check for work but don't just say "oh there is plenty of work in Australia" and fly over...it will work but may take a lot of stuffing around also......try to make contacts and send resume's before hand...big companies perhaps like Stowe or Heyday...whatever Kilpatrck Green is now, it had amalgamated......Send a letter and resume. Tell them you are coming over, when..or ask when might be a good time with up and coming projects...ask for acknowledgement and folow it up...they can plug you into the equation.....if they know what an equation means...For some of you younger blokes...

The Army in the UK might be a good place to do a trade too...I sometimes think that for all the disadvantages of this moment in history, that there are great reasons to be in the Army...as opposed to Deptment of Navy and Depair.. when it comes to everyday trasferrable electrical trades......I know there are widely differing trains of thought in this area but my experience with the armed services, during and since Vietnam has given me a view too...I have few inhibiting barriers to being topical, nor should anyone in discussing and deciding about a career and where to live and where to go and why.

I know men and women who will not join up because we are once again involved in an unjustifiable invasion and there are many like that..even in Israel where large numbers will not serve in Palestine. There is the possibility that "after Iraq" (which will adversely affect us for more than just the next thousand years)... what was not enacted after Vietnam , might happen...Politicians seeking the truth before sending young people and older people off to engage in a culture of death to inflict someone elses "enforced democracy" and deception. We might even say "sorry" and do something to recompense the utter destruction of what was a highly advanced Nation with religious freedom including Christians, now a shattered and pillaged nation with no religious freedom as the Archbishop of Canterbury was well advised by his man in Iraq.

These factors are a great part of the decline in interest in decent people having the Army as a possible career. Is that it though, the end of it...perhaps its better it is.....let them think about why people will not join up. I am unsure...but I know it is something a tradesman will be pondering when thinking "what about doing a trade in the Army".

Army guys can get some great overseas postings especially with governmental aid and disaster work. One of these days we may not be the lackies used by a tiny % of the population who are politicians in exploiting and protecting sacred cows in the middle-east or assisting NWO imperilaism where citizens protecting their country very justifiably want to drive us out, whatever it takes.. and a soldier who wants to have integrity guaranteed in his job may have that anxiety lifted ..

The Australian army does a lot of Aid work..and maybe so does the British..could be a good continuity from one to the other....We might also be able to get safe and interesting work in say Africa or Venezuala or Argentina and be an example to these countries once leaving the services as many only sign on once....so for me a young aspiring electrician could do much worse than consider the Army for that apprenticeship...or as a tradesman for 5 years. There may even be a way of joining up over here with naturalisation or with previous British Army experience. If what you are after is cold hard cash though...forget the armed services.

Cheers

[Janice]

Hi I am not really sure how to use this website so I am just going to write my info in the hope that someone will offer me some advice.
My family and I are seriously considering moving to Oz, we have looked at some areas and have been advised that Perth would probably suit our family needs best. I am a community psychiatric nurse, but I dont know if this type of job is readily available in Perth? My husband is a signal and track technician for railway, prior to that he used to be a farm worker for 12year. We would ideally prefer to have some type of employment before moving out there. We have three young boys aged 6, 3 and 8months. The main reason we want to move is for better quality of family life. It is very hard to find out where to go, or what areas to look into, when we have never been before, so any practical advice would be much appreciated. At the minute my head is so full of unanswered questions..
Would love to hear from people who have made the move or any others.
Cheers Janice

[kaz101]

Hi Janice,

I've replied to your other post

Regards,
Karen