The tribulations of a Brit sparky trying to sort out the paperwork down under:
http://britishexpats.com/articles/australia/electrician-in-oz/

Pauluk, is the 4 month course at tafe for your contractors lisence. If so (at least in SA) all i needed to do was prove i had worked as a contractor within the last 5 years, all this required was a stattiary declaration by my accountant, saved the money and time for the course. Cant see why it would matter if the accountant was based in the UK. Good luck, Just remember that all the drongos at the licensing board want is the boxes ticked, i dont think the know or care how it happens! Im still waiting to see if the beuracrats can see it as a smart thing to make lisencing Australia wide. As it is at present if you go to a construction site out of state technically you are working illegally, yet it is almost impossible to obatain a lisense in a state that you dont have a permanent address in. I did electrical as a second trade after completing instrumentation as my first trade so i can sympathise with you and the hoops you have to jump through. Good Luck

Don't ya just love the bureaucratic mind?

I may be being ignorant but what is a TRA certificate?

I had no idea either, so Google to the rescue!

It appears to be an office dealing with equivalency of qualifications -- Trades Recognition Australia:
http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Category/SchemesInitiatives/TRA/

Where had you previously been a contractor?


There are people working on that and I don't think it will be too long before we have national tradesman licenses.

I had worked as a sub contractor at Olympic Dam in SA pre GST. I then Let my contractors lisence lapse as they increased the fees from free to about $180 per year. I thought i would just apply for it when i needed it again but they changed the rules and requied a course at tafe. Wont make that mistake again.

There's a big difference between having previously been a contractor in the same state and having been one in another country.

I agree, but i also know that as long as you have all the boxes ticked you get the license. As bad as it may seem the people in charge of lisencing (at least in SA) seem to have no idea and blindly follow the procedures set down in front of them, they apear to have no technical knowledge. I would at least try this aproach as the documentation i was given did not specify where you had been a contractor, it appeared to be more concerned that you had run a business, hence the business course required to get the contractors lisence. Funny how you can run many other businesses without any lisence.

Yeh that annoys me. In Qld you need a technical person endorsee and a business person endorsee. Personally I don't see that it's the licensing office concern as to how much you know about running a business and rather discriminating that electrical contractors have to put up with it when many, many other business don't. After I renewed my contractors license last time I asked the licensing office who they had down as the business person endorsee and they couldn't tell me! Apparently it's such an important part of your license that they don't even bother recording it on their computer system.

they remember to bill you each year though, funny that.

Currently for overseas Electricians migrating to Qeensland.

In Qeensland there are Electrical Fitters, Electrical Mechanics, Electrical Linespersons and Electrical Cablejointers.
The process in general is, to obtain any one of these licences you need to obtain a Australian Trade Recognition Certificate for one or more of the above first.Then you have to apply for an Electrical Work Permit from Electrical Licencing Qeensland. When you have this permit you can legally perform electrical work in accordance with the restrictions on your Electrical Work Permit.
When you have obtained the appropriate Electrical Work Permit you then need to contact a Registered Training Organisation(RTO)to discuss a training plan. Once you have successfully completed the required training the RTO will normally issue a Completion Statement to Electrical Licensing Queensland. Then you apply for your paticular Electrical Work License. All this cost money.

With our so called skills shortage its amazing we cant even agree on a lisencing system that is country wide with all states having the same requirements and lisences. I dont believe we have a skills shortage, just a wage injustice making other jobs such as plant operating more atractive to tradesmen. If trade wages lifted you would see tradespeople coming back to their trades. Doesnt matter how many mechanics you train if they can earn more driving a truck or being a parts interpreter. Just my rant!