Thank you all for your posts and I'm nearly there with getting my relevant cards.
As you say here if the spanner aint turning your not earning and my spanner has not turned. I'm heading back to Sydney this Friday till April to enjoy some sun and earn some dollars so I can return. By the time I get back I'll have all my cards sorted so will be able to get straight into things and hopefully work will have picked up by then and there will be some jobs about. My mission is to get some hands on experience in the UK.
For those of you interested in going to Australia I'll provide some info below that will hopefully be of some help.
Workcover NSW (New South Wales) is the organisation my scaffold licenses are registered with. Search Workcover to see if they can provide info for changing licenses across as I'm sure this is a national organisation. Otherwise check out our TAFE websites (this our technical training colleges.)
If you can't get licenses transferred which I'd be very suprised our scaffold training is quite similar to the UK. Most of the training would be very similiar betweeen the Australian states. In NSW we have 3 scaffold classes Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. You can do an 18 week course 2 nights a week at TAFE which would get you up to an Advanced ticket. 6 weeks is spent on each class. This course they also have it running full time where I think it takes about 3 weeks. You may need to book well in advance to get into these courses.
Alternatively you can book with an independent Workcover Assesor who you can take the tests with. Doing it this way you can get each class within about 4 hours by taking a written test then completing a practical test. You just need to wait I think 7 days between doing each class, basic, intermediate then advanced.
Each state has there own OHS course which is compulsory like the CSCS card. It has alot of different names across the states from Green, White to Blue Card but they all refer back to been a OHS card. Usually quick and easy to book in and take this course. In NSW it's a 5 hour course and in Sydney you can generally book to do a course the day before.
Working in Perth the main company to check is PCH Group, they were recently bought out by CAPE. Alot of the mine work is based from Perth WA (Western Australia). Most of the mines work in WA you need to be based in Perth for the fly in fly out schedule. Mind you there is alot of work in Perth itself. There is always alot advertised there just hit google.
Sponsorhip to Australia is an option that would be quite difficult to get through a company if you don't know anyone in Australia and we don't have a scaffolder shortage that I know of.
I hope that my info has been helpful to get you started in your searches. I'll keep logging in here and if you have further questions I'd be happy to try assist you guys.
Schoie
