Need an advice!

[Kirils.O]

Hi all,

I am gas engineer with about 12 years in trade. Experienced with different type of boilers from 12kW up to 40MW. In Latvia, if you know such a country. Hope you do. Now the question. Is it worth to moving into UK and become 'Registered Professional Gas Engineer'? What is the situation in business?!
To avoid questions like: why you do not work at home, if you are such skilled engineer, I will explain. I work on a full time job for a company which is in a Top 5 in industry. The amount I earn is 1,2K euro a month, plus my private jobs, that gives me about 400 EUR a month. It is a 6 days week with about 11-12 hours a day. I consider this are not appropriate money for engineer, especially if the cost of living is really close to yours in UK.

Thank you for your patience, and hope to receive some answers!
Good day to all you!

 

[PETE 123]

You may earn more but spend more
if you do private work you may get in trouble with tax dept, also you will not be insured.
You will have to pass exam.

 

[Kirils.O]

You may earn more but spend more
if you do private work you may get in trouble with tax dept, also you will not be insured.
You will have to pass exam.

I agree about earning and spending! But I am talking about working for company at the begining. I am ready to study and pass the exam! But the question is: is it difficult to get a job with no British experience?

 

[Ric2013]

I must say I suspect you would struggle. You'd probably find it difficult to obtain a UK-recognised qualification with your foreign experience so you'd effectively be starting as an apprentice on apprentice wages. You might find reluctance to employ a foreigner, or perhaps an employer might decide you'll do a good job a bit cheaper than a British employee - it could go either way! Also, I wonder how much your working practices differ from UK ones - in Italy gas installers often check for leaks with a naked flame - in the UK you'd probably lose your job for doing this...

Depending on where you go in the UK, how does your cost of living compare? Because £1200 a month in the UK would be difficult to live on (could be, anyway), so I find it hard to believe your cost of living is comparible. In the UK, £1200 a month means 12 monthly payments - we don't have a 13th payment (like Italy does, for example).

I think, last time I worked it out, where I'm based (east Essex), it would cost me around £14,000 a year to live, if I were renting a smallish house, owning and running an oldish van or car, and being reasonably but not excessively frugal. That said, I do have a lifestyle that is far more frugal than most British people. That figure would not allow for overseas holidays, for example (actually, I don't think I allowed for holidays at all). You could get a flat or bedsit and save some money on rent and bills, but not a lot cheaper than this, though a houseshare would be cheaper - if you don't mind the sort of slum property that is usually rented in this way. Also, further from London rent is cheaper, but wages are lower too and jobs are harder to find!

 

[Kirils.O]

I must say I suspect you would struggle. You'd probably find it difficult to obtain a UK-recognised qualification with your foreign experience so you'd effectively be starting as an apprentice on apprentice wages. You might find reluctance to employ a foreigner, or perhaps an employer might decide you'll do a good job a bit cheaper than a British employee - it could go either way! Also, I wonder how much your working practices differ from UK ones - in Italy gas installers often check for leaks with a naked flame - in the UK you'd probably lose your job for doing this...

Depending on where you go in the UK, how does your cost of living compare? Because £1200 a month in the UK would be difficult to live on (could be, anyway), so I find it hard to believe your cost of living is comparible. In the UK, £1200 a month means 12 monthly payments - we don't have a 13th payment (like Italy does, for example).

I think, last time I worked it out, where I'm based (east Essex), it would cost me around £14,000 a year to live, if I were renting a smallish house, owning and running an oldish van or car, and being reasonably but not excessively frugal. That said, I do have a lifestyle that is far more frugal than most British people. That figure would not allow for overseas holidays, for example (actually, I don't think I allowed for holidays at all). You could get a flat or bedsit and save some money on rent and bills, but not a lot cheaper than this, though a houseshare would be cheaper - if you don't mind the sort of slum property that is usually rented in this way. Also, further from London rent is cheaper, but wages are lower too and jobs are harder to find!

Thank you for your answer. I do appreciate it. I understand that I could meet such a problem you mean. According to open flame checks. We do not do this way. We have a regulation which is something like yours Gas Safe. But no one controls it. So there are a lot of so called "engineers" who hit the prices down and do shity job. I have finished full Viessmann, Bosch and Buderus, domestic and commercial, but lots of these guys haven't even attended a single class.
About the cost of living. Renting a good flat in Latvia in Riga means 500 EUR month, house 1200. Buying price for one bedroom average flat starts from 60000, house 120000. As an example my wife, Lidl branch manager, earns about 900 a month. Vehicles are cheaper in UK, Latvian guys bring yours right sided, swap the the sides and sell it with profit. Talking about consumers basket it is nearly the same. My mother in law lives in UK, we compared.
So I think it could be worth to try.

 

[Chuck]

Don't forget that the UK is no longer a member of the EU so moving here to work is probably not as straightforward for you as it would have been in the past. You need to check visa and work permit requirements carefully.

That said, I think you are looking for the GasSafe 'European Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications' route to registration (or its post-Brexit equivalent).

Links to GasSafe don't work from this forum so you'll have to dig around on their website yourself to get an idea of what's there and then contact them and ask how you get your Latvian qualifications evaluated and approved as all or part of your registration requirements.

 

[Kirils.O]

Don't forget that the UK is no longer a member of the EU so moving here to work is probably not as straightforward for you as it would have been in the past. You need to check visa and work permit requirements carefully.

That said, I think you are looking for the GasSafe ' European Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications' route to registration (or its post-Brexit equivalent).

Links to GasSafe don't work from this forum so you'll have to dig around on their website yourself to get an idea of what's there and then contact them and ask how you get your Latvian qualifications evaluated and approved as all or part of your registration requirements.

Thank you! I will try!!