Here, for example, is the info on how to apply for a foreign qualification to be recognised. Even if you don't read German, you can click all over this site and see that there are pages and pages of procedures to go through. It is guaranteed that competence in the Swiss language will be required, as without it you could not apply the safety standards of electricians in Switzerland.
This doesn't mean that you can't work in Switzerland with a foreign qualifitcation. But it does mean that first of all you'd have to apply for your foreign qualification to be recognised in Switzerlad and that is no easy task. This is so for any apprenticeship and many types of qualifications, but electricity especially, as each country has its own system and errors can cost lives.
On a student permit, even if you get one as an apprentice, family reunion is not a given and the chances of that happening with an apprentice ́s salary are next to zero.
Why don ́t you work first on getting some qualifications that would allow you to come here? Right now your chances are extremely low.
Trades/technical jobs are very well protected in Switzerland. As others mentioned getting the electrician title takes some years. It's easier for the young because they still live or are subsidized by parents. Also, public transport costs are lower for under 25 YO, no payments to retirement system, even cheaper mobile phone plans. The overall goal is to ensure good life quality for the locally trained technicians by avoiding labor cost dumping of foreign labor.
But...the Swiss system is completely different with university education. Business needing an specific worker profile will make the effort to get you a permit if you have that profile. In this case, you already have the qualifications and you're ready to start generating profits.
The bachelor degree may be more useful than the electrician skills. As electrician you're competing with all the other immigrants with local support networks.
I agree with both these pieces of advice. Here's mine, too: Live frugally, learn how to repair what you have, not to spend much and to save as much as you can, as a buffer for moving to Europe.
Get your wife's EU nationality sorted out.
Choose a Swiss language (I'd recommend either German or French) and both of you learn that, (reading, comprehension, writing, listening, speaking) and pass exams in it. Try to find someone to speak to in person or online. Work your way up through the levels, collecting certificates.
Read up about the way(s) things are done in Switzerland and in the EU countries (work, projects, companies, competition, etc.) in the fields in which you have both already studied. Identify gaps between your ways and those in Switzerland or the EU, and try to fill those with more reading and possibly with add-on courses. Collect certificates.
Get some work experience, also in these fields, in the country where you live now. Even if you don't enjoy this kind of work, it might be a way to start out, and to build your cv, so that you can get work in Europe, and save up to be able to afford to do an apprenticeship.
Try to establish a small, safe base in your country, perhaps in a room in your parents' homes or with a friend or sibling. This could be a place to which you could return at short notice and stay while you look for work, if you do try out living in Europe but then change your minds and want to go home.
Talk through whether, when you move to Europe, you should both go together, or whether one should move ahead of the other.
When you move to Europe, whether Switzerland or EU, try to get any work that is legal and ethical. Be prepared to work hard, to live frugally, and to save what you can.
I think that if you do this for a few years, you could probably each do an apprenticeship. One could start while the other is working full-time (doing more or less anything, in the field you've studied, or not) and supporting them, and then you swap and the other does an apprenticeship with the support of the newly qualified one.
Your dream of living and working in Switzerland is not impossible if you both have EU citizenship, you have a very good command of the Swiss language of the canton in which you'd be living you both want to make the move and your relationship is solid, caring and based on trust and mutual support you are both willing and able to work hard and live carefully. Once you're both qualified, you'll be able to be financially stable.
To add that you do not only need a B permit to bring your spouse but also need to make enough money so that the authorities believe you can safely support the 2 of you. So not any B permit will do.
Like others have said, I would rethink the plan.
I somehow doubt that a 2 day course qualifies for that.
I doubt it qualifies for anything except changing a lightbulb!
On contrary. Most trade and technical jobs are NOT regulated. The most regulated industries are health care and education.
Not regulated:
- plumber
- makeup artist
- decorator/painter
- mason or brick layer
- carpenter
- hair dresser or barber
- broker or stock trader
- nail designer
- car and motorcycle mechanic (but not plane mechanic)
- landscaper
- tiler
- plasterer
- roofer
- pet groomer
- cook
- accountant
- escalator and elevator repair
- welder
- CNC operator
- locksmith
- software developer
- IT technician
- photographer
- waiter or bar tender
- funeral director
- HVAC technician (might need refrigerant license)
- store owner (save for gun shops, pet shops)
and many more
Regulated in some cantons:
- Real estate agent (one canton)
- Construction company owner (one canton)
- Private eye (two cantons)
- Architect (regulated in 6 cantons)
- Interior architect (2 cantons)
- Inn keeper, restaurant owner ( regulated 18 cantons )
There is a course which lasts for a couple months to prepare for the actual exam, but there weren't enough people to open a course so I took the exam directly, the exam consists of the written part and the practical part, I passed only the written part but not the practical part on the first time, then the second time I passed the practical part to get the full level 1 qualification, I was a science student in secondary school and I did some plug changing on the last job in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately that does not qualify you to work as an electrician in Switzerland.
PS; for changing plugs you do not need a certificate here.
Question What registration grade is "level 1"?
From what I found:
https://www.1823.gov.hk/en/faq/how-a...pective-grades
However, this is with grades A, B, C etc
Thanks for the info, the official says it will cost CHF 150 for just telling me which Swiss level my qualification equals to, it is so expensive, what if I spent 4 years in Ireland and the Swiss tell me that my Irish qualification is equivalent to nothing in Switzerland?
Swiss GDP per capita is about $86k and Irish GDP per capita is about $83k, Swiss cost of living is around $2,497 and in Ireland around $2,319 per month for a single person. As an Irish person, I can tell you Ireland is not a cheap option.
And in Ireland you will face the same issues - recognition of your qualifications, finding an apprenticeship, living on a very low wage - most people doing an apprenticeship in Ireland live at home with their parents because the can't afford independent living.
And yes almost certainly your qualification will need conversion to be recognised in Switzerland - you'll need to know the local building code here before you certify work as professionally done.
No requirements apart from fitness to lug around equipment etc. They'll be on around 20-25 francs an hour I guess - where as an apprentice gets around 3 francs an hour (not sure if hubby was serious there but it's not a lot).
Edit: Suggest you get job as assistant, bring wife over. She gets job and once she has EU citizenship she can support you during your apprenticeship.
Thanks for the advice, for looking for a job as an assistant, where should I start? I assume only big and international companies with high business level will hire assistants? And I guess they are in Zurich, Bern and Geneva? I have never seen electrician assistant employment ads on any Swiss job hunting websites
Where do you want to live and where are you now?
I can't take this thread seriously with the OPs username, LOL
I prefer the ski resort towns like Verbier and St. Moritz in Switzerland, but I am also ok to live in big cities if there are more jobs there, I am now in Hong Kong.