Working abroad - Spain and that

rocker · Mar 22, 2010

A thought occured to me but it's just a thought. I've been to Spain a few times and always noticed that their installations are shoddy to say the least. I was thinking that as there are a lot of 'ex pats' in Spain and places like that who tend to group together in their own little communities. Now, when I go on holiday I tend to try and avoid these kinds of people for reasons personal to me, but I am wondering if their properties are as rubbishly wired as your typical rural Spanish hacienda.

....And if so, considering we're all one big happy European family, would I be allowed to go over there and do domestic, or what sort of quals would I have to get? Just thinking I could sod off for a month or two at springtime, get a bit of sun, make a few pesetas or whatever they use now, then fly the missus out for a bit of a holiday for a few weeks. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this, but how feasible is it? Fed up of this bleedin' drizzle.

UNG · Mar 22, 2010

Spains unemployment is worse than UK at the moment

While the Spanish installations may be "shoddy" I'm not sure your one man crusade will achieve anything as the saying goes "when in ***** do what the locals do"

I don't know what regs if any Spain has but that is obviously reflected in the installations you have seen

snoopyspark · Mar 22, 2010

As an eu member state spain has to recognise your qualifications, if you are qualified to work as an electrician here in the uk. As electrical work is classed as a restricted occupation ( ie not open to unqualified persons) you would have to go through official channels and probably have to have official copies taken of all your certificates and maybe even official translations to spanish done (when i say official they usually insist on a consulate approved translator ,not sid from the pub who goes to benidorm every year,so this can get expensive) this will allow you to try and gain employment in spain but as for self employment i would imagine you would have to register a company with the tax offices etc and this could be a nightmare.

Another option is the europass cv that can be translated into many diffrent languages google europass and cedefop they have templates for different trades, but how wideley recognised they are i don,t know but it may save translation fees.

All that said spain does have a large black economy and i dont see why you could not just do cash jobs for expats who may prefer to use a uk trained sparkie but i fear that the competition would be tough as unemployment in the trades in southern spain is high right now and you would be competing against people with years of contacts in the expat community.If you are single with savings and you want to move there and build a new life it would be hard but not impossible but your idea of popping over for a month or two and making a few contacts in the local expat pub and getting enough work to make it viable in this timescale given the current employment crisis it that area of the world is probably unrealistic .But if you are looking for a break from the missus in the sun for a month go for it , it will go t**ts up but you can say that you tried and she may even belive you

and you will have had a month break in spain , its all good

hope this helps