Yep, absolutely. I’m an EE, and was interested in doing my own electrical work - there’s no recognition of prior learning, as far as I can tell. In Australia you must have completed a 4 year apprenticeship. No ifs, buts, it maybes.
For reference, it’s not uncommon for contractors to send out apprentices with a year or two of experience to do jobs solo (it’s illegal, but that never stopped anybody). I appreciate the need for experienced workers to do jobs to a high standard, but it seems clear to me the currents regulations are too onerous.
It’s not surprising a there’s a shortage, when the apprenticeship pays like shit, the actual job is not paid especially well, and the work sucks. The only people who make money are the contractors with a team under them.
Where I live a professional engineer is a legal title that can do anything. You are expected to know your limits, and as an engineer figure out what is right from textbook principals. I know their are professional engineers where I work, I keep thinking i should join them.
Can you send mains power over coax? By code no, but an engineer can do the calculations and sign off and it is legal. Of course if it isn't actually safe the professional engineer is also legally liable in court for deaths.
Ditto here. Working with mains voltages and cabling every day for over 20 years. I know the IEC specs forwards backwards, but I'm 40, married and can't afford to leave my EE day job for a 4 year apprenticeship that pays nothing.
Apparently you can pay ~$12K to an RTO (the 'pay to get qualified' type) and get it done in a year, but you still require a sparkie to sign off, as well as photo/video evidence along with written and practical tests.
I feel like Electrical/HVAC are among the most gate-kept trades in Australia.
It's probably about a tie with plumbing. The reality is the whole country does a weird cold-war type arrangement where no one asks too many questions at Bunnings.
Which is absurd because of course it's essentially the worst possible outcome: people either can't afford necessary work and so never do it, or figure it out and get it done to varying levels of quality which they then never talk about or show anyone because there's no way to get stuff approved.
It's wild to me that you have American DIY channels where people want to put a new circuit into their switch panel box, and just call up the local code office to check what they need to show to get it signed off - then go and do that (also, American switch panel boxes look like such a better system then what we do in residential Australia).
There’s a 12 month minimum work experience, I think - so maybe if you were really keen and able to pass all of the other tests easily it’s still 12mo commitment, which is impossible to justify unless you want it as a permanent job :(. There’s other requirements too which I couldn’t be bothered digging through, so there’s could well be extra requirements (this is for Victoria)
Does the work really suck though? I've always been a bit envious of how much tradies seem to enjoy their jobs, even if personally the idea of dealing with sewage issues or climbing/reaching into impossibly small spaces and dealing with crap jobs done by past workers doesn't appeal. (Actually that last hazard applies just as much in software engineering I guess).
My brother was a domestic electricians apprentice - at least at that level, you get a lot of crap work. Roofs, underfloor, walls, etc. lots of abrasive insulation everywhere.
It’s not a particularly clean or neat job to run new wire in a lot of cases, which is the bulk of the work for a domestic electrician, I think.
For reference, it’s not uncommon for contractors to send out apprentices with a year or two of experience to do jobs solo (it’s illegal, but that never stopped anybody). I appreciate the need for experienced workers to do jobs to a high standard, but it seems clear to me the currents regulations are too onerous.
It’s not surprising a there’s a shortage, when the apprenticeship pays like shit, the actual job is not paid especially well, and the work sucks. The only people who make money are the contractors with a team under them.