Boilermakers — metal fabricators and fitter-welders in Australian terms — for mining maintenance, heavy fabrication and structural steel. The Philippine fabrication and shipyard workforce is the natural source, and the occupation is on the Core Skills list.
Boilermakers are the trade Australian mining and heavy industry cannot find: plate and structural fabrication, repair of buckets, chutes and chassis, on-site welding to procedure, reading fabrication drawings and marking out. Technicians and Trades Workers recorded 58 % recruitment difficulty in the June quarter 2026 survey; in remote Australia, where the mines are, recruitment difficulty was the highest of any region at 52 %.
The Philippines has one of the largest ship-building and fabrication workforces in Asia — Subic and Cebu yards, Gulf fabrication contractors, Korean and Japanese yards — and its fabricators come with exactly the plate, structural and pressure-vessel experience Australian sites need.
Mark-out, cut and fabricate a component from a drawing at Prime Search's Makati workshop; weld it to your procedure (GMAW/FCAW plate, SMAW where you need it); dimensional check. Pressure-vessel fabricators are tested to ASME IX parameters. You watch live or from the recording and interview the same day.
For Philippine passport holders, Trades Recognition Australia's skills assessment is mandatory before the visa for this occupation. We build the TRA evidence file — documented experience, employer references, trade test results — in Manila, before your nomination is lodged, so the assessment does not become the critical path.
On the Australian side, the standard route is the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), Core Skills stream: your company holds (or obtains) Standard Business Sponsor approval, advertises the role to the Australian labour market for the required period, and nominates the position at or above the Core Skills Income Threshold — AUD 79,423 from 1 July 2026 — or the market rate, whichever is higher. The occupation must be on the Core Skills Occupation List. The visa runs for up to four years, with a permanent pathway through the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) — Direct Entry where eligible, or the Temporary Residence Transition stream usually after two years of eligible sponsored employment. Home Affairs lodgements are made by a registered migration agent, a legal practitioner or your company itself; we prepare the recruitment, skills-assessment and Philippine-compliance file and coordinate — we do not provide Australian immigration advice.
The Pilbara DAMA occupation list includes boilermakers, and Western Australia's state-wide DAMA covers metal trades in both Perth and the regions — a route with concessions for employers who qualify. Everything here is subject to applicable Australian skills assessment, licensing, occupation and visa requirements.
Metal Fabricator 322311 for fabrication and repair; Welder (First Class) 322313 for welding-only roles; Fitter-Welder 323213 for maintenance fitting with welding. We match the documented experience to the code before the TRA file is built.
Yes; Gulf and shipyard backgrounds are camp-based work. We brief every candidate on roster, site and climate before the interview.
Yes — Metal Fabricator is on the mandatory list for Philippine passport holders.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.