Getting Started
The truth is that for many, it takes years of dedicated time and attention to gain the relevant experience for a Builder Licence application. This experience comes from directing and supervising construction sites that match the level of licence you want to apply for, where you’re reporting to a licensed builder. In QLD both commercial and residential experience can be relevant. Working for yourself, or jobs that don’t involve a builder help contribute to your personal experience and skills, but won’t necessarily mean much when it comes to proving you know how to do what a builder does.
If, like many in the industry, you have your own construction business to worry about, then it’s natural to question what the shortcuts are – how can this happen faster, so you can get to your Builders Licence sooner?
The honest answer is there aren’t any true shortcuts when it comes to getting the right volume of experience for a builders licence application. The experience you gain as a site supervisor is fundamental to the success of your application. It also helps shore up your own skills so that when you ARE licensed as a builder, you know and understand how to manage your business as it grows.
At the end of the day, you are the only one who can make the decision on what you want to prioritise – your business, or taking on jobs that enable you to build your experience as a site supervisor.
Understanding what qualification you need for your builders licence application is also important – in QLD, completing it early can enable you to obtain a Site Supervisor licence, which further shows you are educated and knowledgeable about this level of site management responsibility. That can only ever help your builders licence application in the future.
Finally, where possible it’s key to stay on good terms with the builders you work with – you may need them as a referee, to help verify your on-site experience. Keeping a good record of the sites you’ve worked on with that referee will save time later. Referees and their reports are a backbone to your application.
Getting Ready
When your qualification is completed, you’ve done ‘enough’ jobs, and your referees are on board, it’s time to start looking at how all those pieces come together to make a full builders licence application.
At Construction Licensing, our goal is to make the builders licence application process as simple as possible. We work with you to set out your application based on facts, highlighting your real, lived experience on site. In addition to helping you figure out which sites work best in your licence application, we help you build a tight and focused application with evidence that you have all the skills and experience to be a licensed builder.
Starting with an Initial Licensing Consultation, we talk through your position as it relates to the builders licence you want to apply for, taking into account your industry history and the narrow application criteria. This helps us to determine how we’re able to help you achieve a strong licence application, and what it’ll take to get over the finish line. We can confirm your qualifications sit in the right place – especially useful if you’ve done a degree – as well as help identify the best referees, and what areas of your industry history may have the most fertile ground for examples of your experience in supervising and managing construction sites. We take the time to help you get your head around all the moving parts.
Once we get stuck into the application process with you, we try and get you out as soon as possible – but it’s still a big undertaking, and it takes time to make sure something is done right. The licensing specialist managing your application can give accurate feedback about realistic timeframes.
After your builders licence application is lodged to the QBCC, always allow at least 10 weeks for the application to be received and assessed. This varies depending on where you live, and the time of year. There’s always people ahead of, or behind you in the queue.
The lesson: not only does it take time to get the qualifications and experience together for your builders licence, it also takes time to get that application organised and out the door – and to get a result. No matter where you’re up to in the process, Construction Licensing is here to support you throughout the builders licence application process, whether that’s figuring out which licence you want to go for, or how to get there.
Read More
Mastering QBCC Builder Licence Applications
Builder Licence Application Process – Key Considerations For Success
