Part II: 1st stage of SA - Prove your experience by documents and Technical Review, Total cost ~ 3500 Aud

1/ Documental Evidence

Licenced Trade does not require candidate must have certificate or degree or formal training. However having some could be an advantage since this reduces the requirement by years.

• Having formal training: Require at least 4 years of experience
• Having no formal training: Require at least 6 years of experience

Which certificate will satisfy VET? I am not sure about this, because it is up to your country education system. For example, my country does not have any training course for plumber.
In my case, my academic transcript proves that a quarter of credits provides knowledge closely relating to 342111, while others are more of Clean Energy. This means that your training course does not need to be fully relating to the occupation. 1/4 seems to work nicely.
Also, in case you learn Licenced Trade occupations in Australia, should you take PATHWAY 2 on VET or TRA. And this is beyond my experience.

My documents include:

• Education: Engineering Degree and Academic Transcript (should highlight subjects relating to your current occupation), these can be gathered from the university, must be bilingual (English) or certified translated.
• Work Experience: bankstatements (highlight your salary received each month). Superannuation records.
  Also payslip (must have supervisor's or human resource's signature and business stamp of company) or tax records work good as well, must be in bilingual or certified translated.
• Other for Work Experience: Labour Contract (Employment Contract), annual Salary Adjustment (or rise), certificates issued by your company, must be bilingual or certified translated. Should have some other documents such as work reports, photo on working site.
• Reference Letter: there is a form for this suggested by VET, or you can use several form on Google. Must have company description (nature of business, history, website,...), your start date of employment, your roles. Also leave the contact of your boss (business number and business email). They could actually contact your boss via email or phone call (if your boss is an English native speaker).
• Identity: Passport scan (biodata page), passport size photo, a page of curriculum vitae that helps give a brief or explanation of above documents.
• Practical Experience Summary (PES): express your experience. This form will ask for your experience in dealing with some situation, system, machine or equipment, and following job safety. If you have no experience, study some from Google, Youtube, Quora, Wiki or seniors around you, then fill in the form.
  For 342111, you should know some about air conditioner, refrigerators, visi cooler, and big system which are [Chiller or VRF/VRV] or [industrial freezer system, amonia/cascade]
  Actually, the assessor wont bother to ask you about big system. He will seek for more of fundamental knowledge and skills from you.

Once you have gathered all documents, upload all in VET site, and then make payment in TRA site. TRA will give you a confirmation code to submit in VET site => VET start to assess your document => wait for outcome.

• I submitted mine in 23/10/2021 and had my result sucessful in 04/11/2021.

You then repeat above steps for next rounds.

2/ Technical Assessment (TA)

According to guideline on VET, you will take both technical & practical assessment in one among many of VET facilities. The place can be in Australia, South Africa, UK or Ireland. It is up to you, if you can apply for these country visa and travel there. Due to Covid, my TA was conducted online, at my home.

Preparation:

• Pay 2000 Aud to TRA.
• Hardware: a laptop with decent camera, micro & speaker. Headphone is good as well. Clean your room, let it be tidy and neat.
  A large mirror so assessor can check your room for any cheat material and helpers. You will be required to bring your laptop going around the room.
• Software: via email, VET will tell you assessment date, time. At that time, a call staff will contact you directly via phone call, and then instruct you to use the software (Adobe Connect) provided by them, and how to use it to connect with assessor.
• Knowledge: in the guideline, they will give you a syllabus, called Units Of Competency (UC), lists all sorts of knowledge you shoud have known.
  If you dont know these knowledge, study by now from the internet and seniors around you.
• The assessment day: In the email, VET may ask you to submit for some additional documents, this will not be a big deal. Once you connect with the assessor, he will show you a slide of around 50 questions. You are required to read out loud the questions and afterwards give answers, one by one. If questions are difficult, assessor will give some hint to help you. But if you still cant make it, it is your bad luck.
  The duration is almost an hour.
  Once you finish all questions, assessor will leave a hint of your outcome, like "I will see you soon again."

My opinion about TA

• VET staff were very friendly, supportive, constructive.
• Nearly all questions come from the UC. I guess there maybe up to 500 questions ready, but they take just 50 from those to assess you.
• Assessor will focus mainly on work safety, you should too.
• Assessor's attitude is to look for you strengths.
• From UC, you should learn some English terms in Aircon mechanic field
• Just email VET constantly and urge, if they show some delay.

I got my successful outcome in the next day.

Below are some questions I can remember, hope this help ease the tension of your.

1/ procedures of servicing => confirmation, find faults, give quotation, fix, record parameter and give report.
2/ safety procedure for refrigeration reclaiming => PPE, leak on frame, recovery tank’s weight, station’s insulation resistance 500VDC.
3/ leave oxygen and acetylene tanks in a close chamber/car? => distance 3 meters at least.
4/ what sould be considered when installing condeser unit? => short air, noise, vibration.
5/ brazing pipe procedures => set pressure regulation (0.4 bar for propane and 4 bar for oxygen), flush nitrogen in pipe at 0.2 bar to prevent oxidization inside pipe line.
6/ refrigerant recovery procedures => Connect gauge hoses at both sides of condenser, mount safety valves to avoid frostbite. Connect auxiliary hose to intlet of the station, of course must have filter for preventing contaminant entering the station. Outlet of the station connects to recovery cylinder (tank). Must have digital scale. Vacuum, purge hose and tank -> liquid recovery -> vapour recovery -> purge station (remove residue and contaminant harmful to the compressor).
7/ methods of evacuating => deep vacuum, use solely pump. Triple evacuation, flush nitrogen after vacuum, then evacuating, repeat 3 times.
8/ electrical circuits in refrigeration => Power circuit and control circuit.
9/ tools for fabricating pipe? Imp cutter, reamer, file, flare block, swaging tool, crossbow bender (presses).
10/ dispose recovery refrigerant and oil? Sending filled recovery tank to designed plants for this responsibility.
11/ a refrigerant for insdustry use? => ammonia.
12/ industrial refrigeration systems? => postmix (?), coolroom, freezer, cascade.
Additonal question: do you have experience with cascade? (I actually don’t, know cascade in school)
13/ why use dry nitrogen in refrigeration system? => do not make chemical reaction to oils and refrigerants.
14/ checks need to be done at condenser? => power off, check continuity, resistance and insulation resistance of windings, wire connections and foundations of motors. Power on, check pressures, amps, vibration, noise.
15/ how to work out about condenser temperatures? => measure inlet and outlet air flows.
16/ how to find sub-cooling temp? => measure high pressure, get equivelent saturated temp. Measure temp before expansion. Sub-cooling temp. is difference of those 2 values.
17/ why not damage the insulation of wire? => insulation prevents shock by electrical leakage in case of accidental touching by persons.
18/ operation of single phase motor => motor has starting winding and running winding. Starter connects with a capacitor. When rotor reachs certain speed, centrifugal switch releases and cut off start winding.
19/ system uses star-delta starter => chiller compressor.
20/ types of compressor => swing and scroll for residential, srew and reciprocating (piston) for industrial.
21/ fixing methods on types of wall (brick, hollow wall, steel frame,…) => dynabolt for brick wall, steel anchor for hollow wall…
22/ procedure to clean system of burn-out compressor => remove compressor, connect the 2 inlet and outlet to form close circuit. Flush cleaning agent (butyl acetate?) and nitrogent several times into one end of system and judge the result at the other end. Replace filter.
23/ induce saturated temp from pressure measure at high side => use chart of saturated status of refrigerant.
24/ how to know vacuum complete? => look at manifold gauge needle reach lowest (-1 bar). Should use micro vacuum gauge.
25/ calibrate pressure sensor/gauge => 1st check at atmosphere pressure if needle point at 0. Use nitrogen with known regulator to generate pressure and check gauge needle position again.
26/ what to check if high pressure goes high? => dirty, malfunctioned fan motor and air short at condenser. Check refrigerant if overcharged or having non-condensables.
27/ electrical and mechanial faults of compressor => electrical: grounded, open. Mechanical: internal leakage due to check valve failure, worn part causing amps rising and noise.
28/ construction of water cooling tower => have fan to suck air out. A water pipe for cooling connects to a sprayer system right below fan motor, turn liquid water to mist, increasing heat exchange efficiency.
29/ types of condenser => cooled by air or water. (actually, natural, induced, forced, evaporative)
30/ procedures of safe electrical isolation => test multimeter at known source of live. Use multimeter to check output terminals of CB before and after shut-off. Test multimeter at known source again. Remove wires at terminals. Isolate wire leads with insulating tape. Lock the CB and place tag to warn other people to not open the CB.
31/ What to do when check wire => check for continuity and insulation resistance with 500VDC.
32/ procedures of safe electrical check at machine => Check for frame leakage. Isolate wires at both ends, CB and machine (like 30th).
32/ What to do when check motor safely => Repeat 32th, remove motor wires as following order, lives, neutral, & earth.
33/ Components in defrost process => thermistor to detect freezing. Timer to periodically defrost automatically. Heating resistor to cause water melting (I was panicked, should said “heater” and “ice melting” instead)
34/ importance of scheduled maintenance => prolong equipment lifespan, maintain efficiency & capacity, reduce energy cost.
35/ critical charge system? System with capillary tube, do not over charge or under charge.
36/ non-critical charge system? System with components holding over-charged liquid, such as receivers.

 

Part III: Visa 600 & Practical Assessment (PA)

1/ Visa 600: Why ?

As I mentioned before, for Licenced Trade, VET requires candidate to conduct PA at authorised facilities in 4 countries:

• Australia
• South Africa
• UK
• Ireland

You should email to VET and express the wish to have PA at your preferred country. If you can go to South Africa, UK or Ireland, just go there.
If it is Australia, make sure you can get visa 600 (tourist) before pay for PA.

Once you get your visa, email to VET and tell them you are ready to move & request them to schedule the PA.

2/ Other formalities prior to PA:

Pay 2200 Aud to TRA, then turn to VET. Email and urge VET if necessary.

You will be required by VET to register other papers & documents before scheduling:

• Covid vaccination certificate: I'm not sure if this is abolished yet.
• ARCTICK licence (for 342111): this is Australian Refrigeration Council, has authority to certificate you and workers. Follow the link provided by VET to access Arctick website and register your licence.
  When registering, you must provide an Australian address so they can send physical licence card to that address. If you have friends or relatives in Australia, you can use their address. It is just a formality, so you can use VET address in Melbourn as well. Digital licence will send to your email when the register is successful.
  While registering and filling in blank field, DO NOT PRESS SUBMIT. Your name & your birthday can be used only once, they do not allow replica happen. If you submit by mistake, you have to email them to explain and request removing that register, so you can start over.
  Fee 35 aud.
  It is not the end here. They will ask for your passport photo & other documents supporting your register, like the reason why you need a licence. Just email them your passport photo and reference letter (in the ARCTICK guideline PDF file which VET sends you before).
  Processing time: a week. If you can actively email them all the requirements, this should be shorter.
  Finally, email the ARCTICK licence to VET and request scheduling.
• USI (Unique Student Identifier): if you choose Australia for your PA, register one free at https://www.usi.gov.au/
  You need an ACTIVATED visa 600 to register USI. This means that you have to pass airport customs to activate your visa, before be eligible to register USI.
  You must register by the name appear on visa.
  VET may rigidly ask for your USI first, then you should reply that USI has its own rule, so that you will provide USI right after landing & before PA date.
  Once successful, login your USI, go to "Provide Your USI", press "Print USI" to get USI certificate in PDF, and then send it to VET.

Once the schedule is set, VET will send 2 emails:

• Email notify the tentative schedule, 3 weeks earlier.
• Email confirm schedule, 2 week earlier, along with 1 Admission Voucher (AV). You must print AV, PES (part 2) & bring these to PA venue.

Where is PA venue? If in Australia, you will be told to go to a TAFE school (sort of vocational school). TAFE appears every where in Australia. You should suggest them to pick an address that near your relative or friend in Australia.

My case:

• TAFE Bendigo, 160km from Melbourne to the north.
• To travel there from Melbourne, you should choose V-line train and thus need a MyKi card to pay for the ticket. Trip costs 30 Aud per person. Train staff wont accept cash for ticket.
• Go to PA venue one day earlier, so you can ask for precise direction. If lucky, you can meet VET staff and even assessor, then confirm again the schedule and regulations about dress code, tools and equipment.
• You may not need to bring your tools, because TAFE will provide almost all. You must have your own safety gears, which are goggles, gloves, steel toe boots and long sleeves jacket. You can buy these at nearby store - Bunnings Warehouse. If possible, bring your own VOM and contact thermometer.

3/ Conduct PA 342111

• Timeframe: 8am - 5pm, 30mins for lunch break. Bring your food, water, AV & PES.
• Content: just as mentioned VET guideline. Assessor will ask you to do some paper tests.
  • JSA - Job Safety Analysis: How to do some work safely, what risks and dangers are & corresponding countermeasures.
  • Piping fabricating: you will receive a plan, and then flare, expand, brazing with nitrogen... copper pipes to fabricate a piping system according to the plan.
  • Cold check: check if a motor is broken - short - mechanically damaged.
  • Hot check: check a powered system to find which protecting mechanism is activating by volt tester.
  • Refrigerant recovery - vacuum drying - refill refrigerant - check operation parameters. If you have a contact thermostat, it will be quicker for you to finish.
  • Safety procedure of working with electric - Disconnect/Reconnect electrical equipment: in guideline you will find a detail instruction of what to do. Memorise it, and then repeat as you work with the electric. Assessor may ask you for some point, just to make sure you are fully understand what you are doing, like why you have to do this, what the purpose is, what the risks are.
  • Multiple choice test: this will be not hard, if you are well-prepared, just focus on the Units of Competency.

Also, assessor wouldn't ask you about big system such as Chiller, VRF, cascade...

Also, since the Covid is over, you might take both Technical Assessment and Practical Assessment in one day.

As the TA interview, assessor would leave a hint for PA result.

Then, you would have done your Skill Assessment, the hardest part. Afterwards, you can focus on finding your work sponsors (for 482 and 186 stream) and English & other supporting documents (to achieve 65pts, 70pts is better).

My timeline:

• 2021-10: Pay 1280 Aud for Stage 1 - Document Evidence.
• 2021-11: Stage 1 successful. Pay 2000 Aud for TA.
• 2022-01: Notified TA will be conducted in March.
• 2022-03: Take TA. Have successful result in the next day. Pay 2200 Aud for PA.
• 2022-05: Border opens, Covid ends, submit application for Visa 600.
• 2022-08: Granted Visa 600.
• 2022-09: Register ARCTICK, send VET.
• 2022-10-14: Received email for tentative PA schedule 2022/11/04. Book flight and hotel.
• 2022-10-21: Received email for official PA schedule 2022/11/04 and Admission Voucher.
• 2022-11-01: Register USI upon landing, send VET.
• 2022-11-04: Take PA.
• 2022-11-17: Take final outcome of Skill Assessment - successful.
• 2023-01-04: Take IELTS (there is no PTE test center near my place)
• 2023-01-07: Take IELTS result, competent
• 2023-01-20: Submit ROI for Victoria
• 2023-01-24: VIC ROI rejected, submit EOI for NSW.
• 2023-02-15: Received pre-invite from NSW. Submit for NSW nomination.
• 2023-03-08: Received NSW nomination.

Good luck, my friends!

 

Hi 👋 First of all thank you man for Wonderful explanation of whole process 🙌 I was searching lot of websites and videos to gather details but you have put everything in one post appreciate your help. I have a question about skills assessment I'm onshore in Melbourne 1) I have done mechanical engineering from my home country and I had subjects related to refrigeration and air conditioning, thermal energy, fluid dynamics etc. Will vetassess accept engineering degree equivalent to certificate III in aircon mechanic 2) I have worked overseas as a HVAC Project Engineer for 5 years should I do assessment for my engineering position as project engineer or should I tell vetassess that I have worked as a technician? 5) Is there any material for practical exam preparation from vetassess. Can you clarify this doubts for me Thank you 😊 one again

 

sorry for late reply, I didn't not receive any notification.
1/ You should look at academic transcript, it will show subjects, courses and credits (units of knowledge). My engineering degree consists of 25% credits relating to air-con and refrigeration field. And this worked.
2/ They will look at your labour contract, job descriptions and reference letter. They will see what you actually do through these papers. So, you should make sure that the information in these papers are the same and prove that you are working at a tradesman.
3/ I have described the tasks in above posts. Also VETASSESS website does show related information about what you will do in practical assessment and where you can find the material, you should pay a visit.

 

Hello mate, I’ve just seen your post about the skills assessment for AC/refrigeration mechanic and I am due to book for mine in a few months.

I did 8 years in the British Army as a AC/refrigeration mechanic but all in all only did about 2.5 years worth of hands on the tools… the rest I was doing other stuff and deployments, unrelated to the trade. And I left about 3 years ago and haven’t done the trade since so I am petrified of the skills assessment, both theory and practical.


Is there any way you could text me on 0497208307 so I can ask you some questions on how the hell I best prepare for this. The 50 questions you mentioned I didn’t know the answer to most of them and I’m really concerned mate.
Cheers 👍

 

They require you to have worked for at least 12 months within last 3 years. Theoretically, you are only allowed to have a gap of maximum 2 years. Your case seems impossible, I'm afraid.

But you can use "conversation" feature of the forum to send me messages, your email... and I will receive notification from the forum immediately.

 

Where can I get the UC with questions you mentioned

 

First, you go find VET guideline for 342111, it will show a list of UC, each unit will come with a code, as well as a link leads to some sort of training site, I dont remember.
There, you use the codes to search for downloadable files (PDF, DOCX) showing contents of all units, what knowledge you should study.

 

So I have looked at this process before and it's terrifying I'm a refrigeration engineer and have been post level 3 apprenticeship for around 8 years I have the practical knowledge and can do the job well but it just terrifies me that you pay all that money and you may not pass im currently looking into this again how did you find the process and did you use an agency and how hard is it to get your quals recognised and get a job

 

Qualification recognition and skills assessment Doesn’t end your problems
You also have to get an invite which is also very difficult if you don’t have a high enough score
Cheers

 

Hello mate, I am also going through this pathway and I did my skill assessment as air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic last year, and also have invitation from south Australia and lodge my file on immigration account 4 months before but now I have a doubt regarding my work experience point which I claimed and got 10 point for five year. Now somone told me that the experience which I claimed for 190 will not be accepted because there is no deemed date mentioned on my skill assessment outcome and they cut 4 years of this experience because 4 years of experience is needed for skill assessment. I just wanted to know that is this true because I am unable to find information regarding this. If this is true then why South Australia have given me invitation. Please inform me regarding this.

 

I say bull****.
I got my S56, requests renewing police check, this means my experience claims are legit.

 

Hi mate, during documents evidence assessment, they dont ask you for the skill evidence such job pictures, videos of your work?

 

They do not ask for it, but I still provided 2 service reports (PDF) in English, company form, just for safe.

 

Oh Thanks god you replied. I am thinking to attend Cert iii refrigeration course in Australia and apply air conditioning and refrigeration mechanic in onshore while I am studying. I have bachelor in mechanical and also 5 years plus experience in refrigeration industry but not in residential and commercial industries like air conditioning , VRV etc. So I worry I won’t be able to pass Technical interview due to my job experience in different industries. So I just think instead of applying offshore going other countries and taking technical and practical interview, I rather do on shore while studying. Do you think it is a good strategic mate? Thank you so much in advance for your advice and the post. You enlightened me for my dream.

 

If you go offshore way, you will need to do up to 12 months of apprentice, may be shorter depend on workload.
If you go onshore way, I THINK you may need to do apprentice up to 4 years before fully qualified. You may need to contact school or agent to clarify my doubt.

Regarding practical interviews, they gave me refrigeration system and copper pipes only to test, no AC. I also posted 36 questions for knowledge test, you need to look at it and see if you can answer all.

 

Mình muốn hỏi bạn chi tiết hơn về các bước thực hiện thẩm định?

 

Hi mate, thank you so much for the detail explanation. Do you need to enroll and pay the trade school to get cert iii refrigeration course during gap training?

 

Mình muốn hỏi bạn chi tiết hơn về các bước thực hiện thẩm định?

Hướng dẫn của mình có chỗ nào không rõ sao bạn?

Hi mate, thank you so much for the detail explanation. Do you need to enroll and pay the trade school to get cert iii refrigeration course during gap training?

Not trade school, it is rather a training center. There are only 2 centers authorised for gap training, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. It is a pain in the ass if you live in other states or cities.
Fee is between 7000-9000 AUD, excluded auxiliary costs for certificates like white card (safety training), first aid and state licence for work (NSW) (total appro. 200-300 AUD). Courses are online delivered, 10 days for practical training at centers. Course length ranges from 6-12 months up to your pace.
You must have job, and your boss must have current ARCtick licence in order to enroll course.
Once enrolled, you are entitled to register a trainee licence for legal training and working purposes.
I went to interviews, explained my situation that I can get licence but only if I get hired first.

 

Mình muốn hỏi khi nhận lịch thẩm định thực hành tại Úc họ có gửi cho mình những yêu cầu về thực hành thẩm định để mình có thể chuẩn bị ko?.

 

Họ không có gửi gì.

 

Bạn có thể xin zalo của bạn, để liên hệ với bạn xin tư vấn được k? Mình đang làm hồ sơ visa 491, mã ngành 342111. Cám ơn bạn nhiều...

 

Regarding visa procedure, I cant help because I have stopped following news and changes for 2 years. However, as Labour won, opportunity may still there for all.
The same thing may happen to the skill assessment procedure, you should pay visits to relevant authorities' websites.
If you still have any specific questions, please send it to me via message on this forum. I will try to replay as soon and as full as possible.