Move To Uk , need some help electrician

Sparky1984

hello everyone, im just back from oz after 4 years and cannot get any work here at all. im a qualified sparks have papers for here and from oz. i was just wondering is a a real pain in the arse getting the trade recongised for the uk? im been hear different stories. like one is do a 3 day couse up north and your sound, a 17th edition or something. which wouldnt be too bad. (its 395 sterling and 3 days, no practical. ) another story which sent a shiver down my spine was you need an asscart of cards, a jib ? an electrical safe pass? and some other different crap part 2 testing ect . i mean is there anything a man do , like send off your papers, do an small assement and get your papers. its pure torture thinking ill have to do my exams for a third time. one in ireland , once in oz, and now england? Fas/Fetac internationally accepted? throw a dog a bone here and tell me some good news. thanks

Sparky1984

oh to clarify im in ireland at the minute

rum and coke

If your on the dole at the minute fas may pay for the 17th edition. You will get a job over there without those,but money is crap

Codofwar

Hi there,
Im in England at the minute workin as a sparks. Did all my training at home and that.
Right, what you need to to is:

#1 : Go to http://www.ecctis.co.uk/naric/default.aspx
The website has changed around a bit but you need to send these a copy of your cert, card and log book, passport and maybe a few more bits. Best bet is ring them and they will tell you everything you need to send them. This will get the Irish qualification recognised over here by the English NVQ system. I think this costs about £30-£40 if i remember correctly and takes 2-3 weeks.

#2 : Your going to need to do the 17th Edition exam as its more or less a necessity now to have it. Its cost me about £600-£700 pounds as you have to buy the 17th edition book before you do it. I did it over a friday evening, all day sat and all day sunday (8am-5pm roughly). It is also alot cheaper the further north from London you go. In Edinburgh I think it costs around £350-£400.

#3 :Next step is to go to http://www.jib.org.uk/ or http://www.ecscard.org.uk/
This will get you your ecs card which also covers your cscs card(safe pass) if you have your irish safe pass. Its a big old form that you have to fill out and it can take 6-8weeks for it to get sent back. You recieve this in the form of an identity card with your picture on it.

If you know someone on a small company that doesn't work on big sites that you could work for then you could possibly avoid all of this but I would recommend getting it all if your planning on staying for a while.
I would also recommend getting it started from home before you move over if possible as the whole process can take up to 3-4 months. Possibly quicker if you get lucky or hound them over the phone.

Also as a side note, I was deemed an Installation Electrician on my ecs card.

Any other questions feel free to ask here or pm me.

Sparky1984

cheers for that man, i was just looking around me self there last night and i got a bit of info , JIB emailed me back there today and said all i need to do is send them my fetac award cert from fas , and fill out their form , then they said do 17th edition wiring, do an ECS health and safety test and should be all good. i might do the 17th edition up north and get craicing on job hunting then , wait out for my ECS, which im not complelty sure is? is there much work over there man or am i jumping from the frying pan into the fire ?

Sparky1984

rum and coke wrote: »

If your on the dole at the minute fas may pay for the 17th edition. You will get a job over there without those,but money is crap

cheers

Codofwar

The ecs is the card you get from the job essentially, its the one with your pic that gets you on site. If you have your irish safe pass done then send a copy of that and you wont have to do any health and safetly tests. There is quite a bit of work depending on where you wanna go. have you decided where your gonna go or where ever you get work? A lot of the jobs on the sites seem very specific about what they want but just keep applying to whatever your suitable for.

Sparky1984

just looking at this form now it is some looking pain,

i dont have national insurance number,
plus seems a good few areas i dont need to fill out does that seem right to you?

Codofwar

Yea there will be a few parts thst you dont need to fill out. Cant fully remember the full form at the minute which after looking at it you can understand why. Not sure about not having your national insurance number for it. Maybe try ringing them to ask or maybe email. I was already living over here a while before doing all that so I had my NI number.
Ill pm you my email address so if you have any questions on it and im not on here you can ask and i should hopefully be able to help and get back to you pretty quick.

Sparky1984

thanks youll definetly get a pint if i ever see you out

antlyn

Just a quick question gents. On the BIG ecs form were you able to apply for a jib grade and did you have to fill in the details of the exams you undertook? Thanks

antlyn

Just one more please! Who did you get to verify your photograph? As I'm having no luck tried the police and job centre but no luck!

Dufftronic

I've been living and working over here for the last year and a bit. I applied for a few jobs in the Oxfordshire area and flew over for interviews etc. The job i got (working as maintenance in a large newsprint plant) didn't even ask for any paperwork but I think they were happy with my CV and the practical they set for me on one of the onterviews. Or i'm just really jammy. I seem to recall applying to naric but i don't think i ever followed it through. You will need to be living in the UK (Norn Iron will do) BEFORE you can get a NI number but it is very straight forward.

I've only ever worked in a maintenance capacity on industial sites, never on a building site, but i found quite a few jobs to apply for. Not sure what your experience is in that regard but there are definately jobs over here. http://www.cv-library.co.uk/jobs , http://www.pioneer-selection.co.uk/ and http://www.rhl.co.uk/ were all useful in getting the ball rolling for me.

Best of luck and remember you can't keep a good man down!

JP838557

Hey sparky
How did the whole process go for you.did it cost much, the dole hardly pay for the 17th edition test ?

Lorne Malvo

Do the Irish qualifications have to be recognized in the UK in order to obtain an ECS card, is anybody aware?

Risteard81

Lorne Malvo wrote: »

Do the Irish qualifications have to be recognized in the UK in order to obtain an ECS card, is anybody aware?

The south of Ireland qualifications will probably have to be sent to Naric for equivalency. On the other hand north of Ireland qualifications will be fine as is for a JIB (ECS) Card.

Lorne Malvo

Risteard81 wrote: »

The south of Ireland qualifications will probably have to be sent to Naric for equivalency. On the other hand north of Ireland qualifications will be fine as is for a JIB (ECS) Card.

I was thinking this, only I saw a post on here where someone said that they rang the JIB/ECS and they were instructed to send them their FAS awarded National Craft Certificate.

Risteard81

Lorne Malvo wrote: »

I was thinking this, only I saw a post on here where someone said that they rang the JIB/ECS and they were instructed to send them their FAS awarded National Craft Certificate.

Give the JIB a ring and see, or e-mail them. I can't give a definitive answer as I completed a JIB Apprenticeship in the north so never had to have qualifications converted or interpreted or whatever you want to call it.

There is now a special site for ECS cards at http://ecscard.org.uk/ or the JIB site is http://jib.org.uk/

Best of luck.