Anyone worked in Australia?

[totoro]

I'm planning a move to Australia next year, specifically Melbourne. 

 

I'm expecting to initially take whatever half decent job I can find but I'll be looking for jobs similar to what I'm currently doing in the UK. I'm a qualified sparky but I've been doing fire, intruder, CCTV and access control for the last seven years for a rather large company.  I'm not keen on going the electrician route as it seems transferring my qualification to Aus is a massive ball ache. 

 

I'm wondering if anyone here has experience working in Aus, from what I can tell they seem to use many bits of kit out there that I've not worked with before. I'm mostly experienced with Menvier, Texecom, Scantronic, Kentec and Gent among others. I'm wondering what are the most popular manufacturers over there so I can familiarise myself with them a bit before I start job hunting out there. I'll be leaving the uk in June next year so I've got plenty of time to study manuals etc. 

 

Thanks! 

[sixwheeledbeast]

3 minutes ago, totoro said:

 I'm not keen on going the electrician route as it seems transferring my qualification to Aus is a massive ball ache. 

 

 

I believe transferring any security qualification you may have is the same deal.

It's more like the American/Canadian market than the UK/EU market when it comes to security, from what I have been told.

[datadiffusion]

Yeah that's the impression I get, forget everything you know other than how to wire a detector and start from scratch, product knowledge wise...

 

I also find with a lot of these places, that because the market is slightly 'behind' in terms of demand (the UK is reasonably unique in having a large, professionally installed

domestic alarm market IMHO) that the types of work and company types will probably be quite different too. When the domestic market does catch up of course, it will go straight

to wireless & be DIY or at best non-specialist handyman type installers.

Edited October 20, 2016 by datadiffusion

[sjsturner]

Had a mate years ago that had all his quals but no NVQ, they wouldn't entertain it so he came back and did his 2356 (sparky NVQ) and went back and I haven't seen him since, so he either made it, or he's lying somewhere very sunburnt.

i would imagine the qualifications held are compared to that of their own standard, last time I checked a fully qualified uk electrician has one of the highest ranks in this situation.

another old work coleague of mine did 1 year in Oz and 5 in New Zealand. Both for fire and security companies, and he had no Qualifications at all, not even time served.

[totoro]

15 minutes ago, sixwheeledbeast said:

 

I believe transferring any security qualification you may have is the same deal.

It's more like the American/Canadian market than the UK/EU market when it comes to security, from what I have been told.

I don't have any security qualifications haha, just 7 years experience. I know that to get myself up to Aus standards as a sparky involves a year of working as a trade assistant, keeping a log book of all my work, having my skills assessed etc. Basically it will take a year at least and I may only be out there for a year.  I've seen jobs advertised for alarms engineers and most don't ask for related qualifications, just experience running cables, if that.

 

 

[J&D Security]

I'd say they use a lot of Inner Range kit for intruder and access control, it's an Australian product, I've used it a couple of times in the UK.

[Alarms 2017]

On 10/20/2016 at 1:10 PM, totoro said:

I'm planning a move to Australia next year, specifically Melbourne. 

 

I'm expecting to initially take whatever half decent job I can find but I'll be looking for jobs similar to what I'm currently doing in the UK. I'm a qualified sparky but I've been doing fire, intruder, CCTV and access control for the last seven years for a rather large company.  I'm not keen on going the electrician route as it seems transferring my qualification to Aus is a massive ball ache. 

 

I'm wondering if anyone here has experience working in Aus, from what I can tell they seem to use many bits of kit out there that I've not worked with before. I'm mostly experienced with Menvier, Texecom, Scantronic, Kentec and Gent among others. I'm wondering what are the most popular manufacturers over there so I can familiarise myself with them a bit before I start job hunting out there. I'll be leaving the uk in June next year so I've got plenty of time to study manuals etc. 

 

Thanks! 

I'm in the process of sorting out my visa at the minute but planning to emigrate to Melbourne later this year. Security engineer is on the skills shortage list so Im sure we will have no problems finding work but there are a few licenses we have to get first such as cabling etc. Good luck with it all and let me know how you get on.

[totoro]

On 13/03/2017 at 5:29 PM, Alarms 2017 said:

I'm in the process of sorting out my visa at the minute but planning to emigrate to Melbourne later this year. Security engineer is on the skills shortage list so Im sure we will have no problems finding work but there are a few licenses we have to get first such as cabling etc. Good luck with it all and let me know how you get on.

 

Really? I've looked on the list but don't seem to see it. Where have you seen that? 

 

The cablibg license and white card seem easy enough to get, but most seem to want a security license which seems more difficult to get. Have you looked into this much? 

 

I intend on working as an electrical labourer/trade assistant when I arrive and try to move onto a more alarms based job from there. 

 

Hows the visa process so far?