You apply, and then you do a computer based test, from there you may be lucky to gain a interview. I suggest to do a pre apprenticeship first as that is the way it is heading at the moment. As for Basic exams with CASA, the rules have changed and now your TAFE exams are now your CASA basics, so there is no doubling up now. However the course material is very different to what most of us engineers have done. Qantas if you get into a line station, your looking at your 4 years apprenticeship plus another 4 years to get a course. That's on a line station with better odds than in heavy maintenance which you have Buckley's.