Local experience before licence or just keep on?
Bit of a winding path here, hoping for some direction from people who’ve navigated similar.
Background: I’m from the UK. Didn’t formally qualify as a carpenter there, but spent years on farms doing proper woodwork — windows, solid timber doors, the real hands-on stuff. Then had a whole separate career in advertising in London. Moved to Australia 6 years ago.
Since being here I’ve completed the double diploma in Building and Construction Management, and in that time have run three small renovations (roughly $250-300k each) in Victoria, both subcontracting work out and working in the trade myself. I’m confident — and crews I’ve worked with back this up — that the finish quality and site management are solid.
The catch: I don’t have PR yet, so I can’t get licensed. At 33, I also genuinely want time on other crews or under an experienced builder here to sharpen up the “how things are done in Australia” details before I’m running my own licensed jobs. My P&L is healthy enough that I can afford to take a wage rather than sub-contract for a while.
I’m aware the RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) route exists, but it’s not really the path I want to go down.
From what I’ve seen and heard, it doesn’t carry the same weight or respect on the ground — carpenters and others in the trade tend to view it as a shortcut rather than earned experience, and I’d rather build genuine runs on the tools/on site here first.
My father in law is a surveyor and has asked other builders and they’ve just said build a portfolio and then keep doing what I’m doing but that doesn’t tick the learning part.
Questions:
**•** What’s the realistic next step for someone in my position — do I approach builders directly, go through an agency, or something else?
**•** Who’s the right person to ask — a builder, a registered building surveyor, or someone at the BPC (Building and Plumbing Commission) directly?
**•** With BPC scrutiny increasing, what should I be careful of so I don’t do anything that could jeopardise a future licence application (e.g. being seen to “act as” a builder without holding a licence, even informally)?
Any guidance — especially from anyone who’s licensed in Victoria after coming from overseas, or builders who’ve taken someone like me onto their crew — would be genuinely appreciated.