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Thread: your skills crisis

  1. #1
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    your skills crisis

    Enough.... I have written a few posts on this site but.... enough

    I'm going home, i have been here since June scratching around trying to find out what i have to do to be a regestered electrical engineer over here and enough is enough.

    I am here on one of those Skills quota visas and even though my qualifications are good enough for me to get a visa to get here they are not recognised by the South African Qualifications Association, well not the highest one anyway.

    So after working(worst job i have ever done and i have done some crap jobs) for poor ass wages for 18 weeks in your grotty airport(which will fall apart by 2010) and then wasting a few months a load of money on basic living and phoning people who don't know there ass from there elbow for information and then doing an electrical course i was recommended to do which is about much use as square marble, I'm going home.

    I don't care if you wild life and i don't care if you have the world cup(good luck with that one)

    I FULLY understand why all the South Africans i know in London are in London.

    I am just so p*&^$d off with myself for wasting this much time here.

    Good luck to you all cos you are going to need it, especially when that nut job Zuma gets in. One step closer to being Zimbabwe.

    See you in the UK!

    Final though...Yes, South Africa is the land of opportunities but its impossible to get things done because 90% of population doesn't know what its doing, where as the UK things can get done so much more easily but there are fewer opportunities.

    I'm going for the U.K. there is less and more

  2. #2
    Platinum Member Marq's Avatar
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    Sorry to see you go.

    My brother in law (an engineer) is coming back from the UK next month. The reason for this is that after spending nearly a year there , he says there is too much and not enough .

    Then my son came back after a two year stint over there. Told us he actually wanted to do something with his life and was tired of the guys there who just lay around on the couch or sit in the pub all the time. So he came back and lay on our couch and drank my beer for a while. After pointing out to him the errors of his ways, he got on his feet and is going strong.

    Then there's my stepson - been in London for the past eight years. He is fed up with the people, attitudes and lack of girls and is now considering coming back.

    So I hear your frustration and know what you are talking about, but it seems to be a world wide problem at the moment and not many are really happy with their lot.
    The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I'm not going to say where I dropped lines about your position, skatingsparks. But know that I'm going to rub their noses in it the next time they waffle on with their lip-service.

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    OK this is easy
    First I'm pretty sure ii know what the your brother in law is unhappy about. Its the UK's insane health and safety. You spend ages ticking boxes, risk assessment etc. that the job takes ages to do. My out look on that is, do you want me to go up the ladder and work or do you want to spend 2 hours waiting while you go checking and inspecting and then only to sticker the ladder to say its OK. Either way I get paid. I blame America everyone suing everyone else over accidents. England caught onto the idea of free money for lazy people at the expense of workers who have accidents.

    Your son coming back after a two year stint, working holiday visa by any chance(lucky he took the chance before they were stopped in November). He's on the backpacker scene and backpackers spend a lot of time sitting on couches and drinking beer, trust me I was professional backpacker. Its also part of growing up in the U.K.. Its a almost mandatory requirement that you waste between 1 and 4 years doing the couch and beer thing as a teenager. Some grow out of it, others make it a career choice. You must first qualify if its a career choice. The qualifications are that you must:
    1) be able to play play station for 24 hours non-stop.
    2) be able to roll a joint with one hand and/or work your way through a 24 pack of black label in one sitting with out being sick and
    3) be able to live on 2 minute super noodles and crisps for long a period of time.

    You know what I can't blame the youth of the U.K. really, when your 16-20 you think your only chance of success is pop idol or some other reality T.V. program. Once you get to 20 you either get of your ass and sort it of take the couch career option.

    As for the UK attitude, I know where that comes from. Its because we are a soft touch and the half the world is taking the P&^% out of us. People fly from all over the world to give birth in out free hospitals which instantly gives the a UK passport and free health care along with all the other perks(housing benefit, dole etc. etc..). Mean while the people who have been paying into the system are waiting longer and longer for treatment. The NHS is absolutely pushed to capacity. My Mum is a nurse who gets upset because she knows what drugs the elderly guys she looks after need but because of cut backs they don't get the best they can.
    Another example is that my friend works down the docks in Dover and he found 4 men hiding in a lorry in those big plant pots you get in malls, the one with big palms in. They had heard that you get free money in the UK. My friend knew this to be the case because the only English works they knew were "free" and "money". After my friend tried to guide them to where they had to go they started getting angry and one took a swing at my friend and cracked him on the chin. He called security who also got a few bumps. They were put in a holding area until the police turned up. Putting them in a cell after they enter the country illegally is apparently and "infringement on there human rights" and they each sued for £5000 and were granted Asylum! The UK gets this kind of crap all the time. Asylum seekers don't hide in trucks

    Asylum seekers we welcome with open arms, people who sneak in to abuse the system, naff off. That's where the English attitude comes from, well part of.

    As for the girls side of things, Sir, I call your son a liar. Its London, if you can't find a girl in London... Well I don't know, its LONDON. There is every nationality, race, creed, colour and size of girl you could probably ever imagine and if you can't imagine there are special clubs in various parts of London which will cater for that to. Can't get a girl in London.... maybe girls don't hang around couch's. I've never heard anything like it in my life!!

    As for the frustration, well that was eased yesterday by spending 40 mins on the phone to the UK. In 40 minutes I managed to get a car(golf £500 with Tax and MOT, that's 7500 rand by the way) get a quote for the insurance, get booked on a safety course I have to do to keep my wireman's licence updated, get a job and sort out somewhere to stay when I get there and change my flight date.

    IN 40 MINUTES, I have been here for 7 months, the job I had here for a short while was 60 hours a week in basement where the wages for that 60 hour week were less than that of an 8 hour working day in the UK(do not tell me its relative, its not), I still am borrowing my girlfriends dads car, I only found out yesterday that the course which took me 6 months to find is in fact no benefit to me getting my wireman licence over here and on top of that they tell me my qualifications, because they are not recognised by SAQA, won't be good enough for me to do the job I have been doing for the last 10 years over here. In the UK I'm a qualified master electrician over here because SAQA and the ECA don't recognise my qualifications and 10 years experience counts for nothing, I'm not even high enough to sit my trade test. The only thing they said I could do was do the N4 course over here, which I can't because of restrictions on the Visa or submit my qualifications again and hope they come back better. It took SAQA 4 months last time. I'm not going to sit here for 4 months.

    No wonder no ones taking SA's offer of a Skills Quota Visa. You know what comes up if you google “Skills Quota Visa“

    I hear the Ozzy skills shortage is being resolved very nicely.

    I have had fun here, it is a great country but everyday there is hassel, hassel, hassel and at this time in my life I need to be making money and moving forward not wasting money, earing nothing and taking 10 steps backwards. I know no where is perfect in this world, well apart from that little island on the west coast of Thailand call Ko phan yam or maybe the Gilli Island in Lombok, but I have had enough.

    Maybe if you have a degree the process of getting a skills quota visa and a job will be easy but to be honest if you have a degree you are obviously not stupid enough to take a MASSIVE pay cut that you get when you get paid in rands.

    I fly at the end of March, just in time for the UK summer which is no where as bad as it made out to be. Just got to talk my girlfriend into coming back now. Either that or I,ll get more education and come back for her.

    Who knows.....

  5. #5
    Gold Member garthu's Avatar
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    Thats really sad it worked out like that skatingsparks... but something many don't see as they live here and have grown, adapted and learnt to accept. I did that in Zim, while you are there you actually don't see the problems for what they really are - unacceptable! One day you realise that it doesn't have to be that way and you make the change.. Still not sure the grass is always greener on that side though , especially with times changed. We have a friend on the way back as he has had it!
    Best of travels...
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by skatingsparks View Post
    No wonder no ones taking SA's offer of a Skills Quota Visa. You know what comes up if you google “Skills Quota Visa“
    I do now

    This SAQA business has got out of hand. The whole idea was for qualifications to be internationally portable.

  7. #7
    Gold Member garthu's Avatar
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    Scarey when thats the info on hand

    Dave change professions - SEO would be good
    Garth

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    skatingsparks

    Well i have leaved in London for more than 10 years,most of the things you have mentioned are real true.Am a qualified electrician 2330 And 2391 inspection and testing and have worked in heathrow for a long time.The only thing about this country is no social life, stressful, misarable people, and racism and too much responsibility thats why i wouldn't wonder why most of the english people migrate to to Canada Australia, Newzeland and the like. What makes the citizens leave their country and we come in something is not right. SouthAfrica it is a land of opportunities but then depends who you know how much you have or how much are you prepared to lose. Bellieve me if you skatingsparks had good contacts and money you should be smiling right now. The goverment members and all civil service are corrupt thats why. Otherwise social life is number one country is very beautiful and nice people though there is crime. Take my words.
    Last edited by thiza1455; 09-Jun-09 at 04:03 PM.

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    Back in the U.K.

    So I gave up on S.A. for now. Got a job which pays me 2 in weeks (7-4 five days a week) for what i got in 18 weeks (6-6 5 days a week and 6-1 on Saturday) working in SA(do not tell me its relative, it ain't). When your skint in SA your social life takes a nose dive. I'll admit my social life isn't good here but that's because I have been studying to get more qualifications (city and guild testing and inspecting, the city and guild design and verification course and city and guild 2356(NVQ 3)). I am trying to get these qualifications done by end of July, and I'm nearly there. Part of my motivation, along with my girlfriend waiting in SA for me, is this guy from ECA, the Electrical Contractors Association, called William Shikler, who no matter what I took into there office to prove I was and electrician was nothing but unhelpful. Because SAQA didn't accept my 2360 Pt 2 they wanted to make me do a trade test. When could I do that trade test...... September 2010. Not going to hang around for that. Maybe I'm not bribing the right people????

    SAQA equalted my qualifications to N3, if I have N4 then I don't have to do a trade test. Its been quicker to come back here and do more courses than wait until 2010 to do a trade test(which i have paid to do so in 2010 I'll do it)

    If I have higher qualifications and SAQA accept them(they asked for one level 3 qualification, I'm giving them 4) I can go back to William Shikler with my Nw and shove said qualifications up his ass. The last conversation I had with ended with the sentence " The reason for the skills shortage in this country is because of beurocratic F^$& wits like yourself"

    If the qualifications I get are not good enough for SAQA or SA, then I can say to my girlfriend that I have done everything I can and then I'd come back here where I can work, or may be go travelling whilst the recession settles down. What ever I do will be better than trying to make a crappy living in SA.

    Your right, if i could get good contracts in SA I'm sure I'd do fine, just the fact that i would turn up when I say I'm going to turn up will give me an advantage over half the competition. Because of my visa, skills quota, I'm not aloud to start my own buisness. Just need to find out who i have to bribr to let them allow me to start a company. less than 50 days and I'll be back there fro one last try. Looking forward to seeing my girlfriend, the ONLY reason I'm going back, not looking forward to the general mess that is SA, maybe Zuma has sorted it out now..... er no....

  10. #10
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    First off I don’t care about England or Australia because I was born in this p*ss poor excuse for a country. Yes my life has less value then a R2 coin and I will probably end up being murdered or I will spare them the trouble and kill myself by swallowing glass. But I am not going to give up just because everyone says this will be the next Zimbabwe. I don’t care if the world ends tomorrow. What ever happened in the old days I was not a part of it! But I am taking the consequences.

    Point is I can take it! It is called a backbone! And I will be damned to hell before I just let go! I urn about R2500 a month. And had more jobs that would care to mention. But I shut my mouth and go on.

    Yes I hate the injustice of it all yes I hate it because I will never have a family partly because I know cannot take care of one. We don’t get opportunities we have to plan to create our own opportunities and pray to God that it will work because we are so desperate that I a grown man cry myself to sleep because everything just feels and look hopeless.

    But tomorrow I get up and I do what can... In the UK you have all the education systems in the world but it goes to waste point blank. You may not like me but you cannot prove me wrong...

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