Painter - Starting up?

[Saffy]

Hi There

We are from England but have been living in New Zealand for the last 5 1/2yrs.

My husband is a time served Painter and Decorator with over 20yrs experience.

We are looking at moving to Brittany.

Can anyone advise us about registration and/or any exta work, exams etc he may have to do to tie his qualification in with what is accepatable in France and for him to be classified as a tradesman.

Our French is very limited but we are studying hard!

Many thanks for any replies

Saff

[Howards Carpentry]

Hi Saff, Why are you leaving Nz to come to France? I took my family to Nz to check out the big move but my wife just did'nt like it and we understand salaries arn't too high but I still often wonder what if. As far as work goes here get your selves in to the chambre de metiers with any qualifications you have and register. Try to make some contacts for work first though so you hit the ground running.

[Charlotte3]

Welcome Saffy,

I work as a decorator in Mayenne, but I'm employed by a French firm, so my experience will be different from a self employed person, BUT......

Personally I would try to find work with an employer, there is a great shortage of qualified workers in all the building trades and you should stand a good chance of finding work, especially in Brittany which is vibrant and also has lots of English speakers, including many French people ie. potential employers.

If you go down the self employed route, given that you don't speak much French, your target market will be the English, and quite frankly they won't pay someone to do what they think they can do themselves...I speak from experience!  The French pay me twice as much as the English for a bit of work on the side.  I would love to be self employed but there just isn't the work. You need to charge 30 euros per hour to keep a business afloat and they just won't pay it.

I can give you lots of advice and pointers about getting work for a French employer, just PM me and I'll help you all I can.

(I appreciate you don't want to get back on the treadmill, but believe me, when you get into the routine of having regular money inh Frence you count your blessings!)

Aly

[Howards Carpentry]

I can confirm alot of Brits prefer not to pay the going rate here either. Most ask for a cash price (black) trouble is you can't take that to the bank and your turn over would be too low to be believable. Their are alot of people working totally unregistered in my area also, I turned up yesterday on a job to find two Polish workers doing all the internal work on a referb job for a Brit and on other jobs I've come across English blokes doing plumbing and electrics all unregistered. As the last poster said if you can get employed do it It's sound advice.

  

[Saffy]

 Hi there

Thanks for your feed-back

We have had a wonderful time living in NZ but we seem to be the itchy feet type and ready for a move. We do wonder why we are moving when life is so good here but guess we just have those nomadic genes!. Yes wages are pretty poor here - particularly where we live in the Nelson region. Apparently we are paid in 'sunshine hours'! Fantastic for time on the beach but doesn't put much food on the table! The general cost of living we find quite expensive. However we do feel if we'd looked too closely at that side of things then we would never have moved here. We are so very glad we did. Our kids (now 10 and 9) have had the most awesome start to school life and and I've traded a career in nursing to one working with at-risk youth and adults in the outdoors - instructing in sea kayaking, hiking and rock climbing. All stuff i learnt here, having never done anything like that before. The pace of life is wonderful, and it seems like you can choose how you want to live. Lack of money does mean overseas travel is out of the question for many people though.

Sounds like i'm on a sales pitch eh? NZ is a fabulous place full of interesting, quirky and fun people with very different outlooks on life. I can highly recommend living here. For us, nothing is for ever and we didn't come expecting to stay. It suits us to try out different places. Who knows - maybe France will be THE ONE!!!!

Thanks again for all your comments - your responses have been very helpful

Best Wishes

Saff

[Howards Carpentry]

Hi Saff, As one person with itchy feet to another please consider what you're giving up. France is really not easy for young famillies alot that I know are leaving or want to our selves included. I toured all over the North Island with my family and loved it but at the end of the day it was my wife who just could'nt make the move for various reasons, parents etc I even had a Kiwi friend with a business in Auckland I could work for. I know it has problems but so does this place and your children are too old to enter the French school system. The education  is very dull. I n our area ( the south west) there are a few problems with teachers making it known that they think English speaking kids are holding classes back. My wife is half Swiss and speaks very good French and she feels so isolated she can't wait to leave, the French systems for every thing are complicated beyond belief, red tape etc. This is all leading to us going back to the UK which is heading straight into ressession. If I could swap with you believe me i would. It's not just that we dont like France we love it and have had many great holidays here, but unless your arriving with a lot of money you must really think hard. And of course i hav'nt ever lived in NZ but all the Kiwi's I've met all come to europe for a look earn some money and then return. Others will disagree with me but your doing the wrong thing. Print this out and bring it with you so when you find out for your selves you can email me so i can say I told you so!!

My wife is a very positive person full of life and this place is knocking the stuffing out of her, I should also add that were not new to this we lived in Luxembourg for five years before having the children which was a far better place to live than France. 

Dont do it to your kids    

[cowoman]

What kinds of pay per hour approx can you earn working for someone as a painter and decorator?

[Charlotte3]

To begin with, you earn minimum wage for the first 2 years fixed contract.

If you are offered another contract (and you really have to be a very good worker to get one) your wage would increase a little, but you will never earn what you would in the UK.

To give you an example, one of our higher paid workers of 17 years standing is jealous of his brother, a plasterer, who earns 12 euros gross per hour!

It came as a HUGE shock to me when I got my contract CDI and saw what my wage would be!  However, it is wonderful not to have the financial worries all my British friends (and OH) have.

Are you looking for work with an employer?

Aly

[Panda]

[quote user="Saffy"] Hi there
Thanks for your feed-back
We have had a wonderful time living in NZ but we seem to be the itchy feet type and ready for a move. We do wonder why we are moving when life is so good here but guess we just have those nomadic genes!. Yes wages are pretty poor here - particularly where we live in the Nelson region. Apparently we are paid in 'sunshine hours'! Fantastic for time on the beach but doesn't put much food on the table! The general cost of living we find quite expensive. However we do feel if we'd looked too closely at that side of things then we would never have moved here. We are so very glad we did. Our kids (now 10 and 9) have had the most awesome start to school life and and I've traded a career in nursing to one working with at-risk youth and adults in the outdoors - instructing in sea kayaking, hiking and rock climbing. All stuff i learnt here, having never done anything like that before. The pace of life is wonderful, and it seems like you can choose how you want to live. Lack of money does mean overseas travel is out of the question for many people though.
Sounds like i'm on a sales pitch eh? NZ is a fabulous place full of interesting, quirky and fun people with very different outlooks on life. I can highly recommend living here. For us, nothing is for ever and we didn't come expecting to stay. It suits us to try out different places. Who knows - maybe France will be THE ONE!!!!

Thanks again for all your comments - your responses have been very helpful
Best Wishes
Saff
[/quote]

I'm with Howard Carpentry on this one, your life in NZ sounds great and I think you should think long and hard about coming to France, you seem to have all of the upside of living in another country with very few of the downsides. 

 

[Howards Carpentry]

Thanks panda, I thought perhaps i had been a bit too negative but the truth is our house went on the market today and my application to Australia will start next week. I've never failed anywhere before, as a carpenter i always find work and it's true here that i have work booked up for all summer but this place beats me. Can't wait to leave.